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We have the Cheata mount with a 40lb riptide salt water trolling motor. With a full battery it provides plenty of power to manuever at a boat ramp. We would prefer to sail without a motor, but that isn't an option at a busy boat ramp. The previous owner had the battery box mounted on top of the the hull forward of the right rear wing seat mount. I didn't care for how it looked and was concerned that it would tear off if we capsized the boat. Neither getting hit by a 50lb battery or swimming in spilled battery acid seemed like good ideas, so we sacrificed a cooler to the cause.
I removed the cover from the right cooler, filled the screw holes with 3m 5200 and put some white Hobie grip tape around the opening to both seal and hide the holes. I then glued four 1/2" x 1/2"x 8" peices of cutting board material in the botom of the cooler to raise the battery box above the round hull hatch. I put two 1/2" x 1/2" x 8" strips with two inch reliefs for the straps along on top of the bottom supports along the the sides of the cooler. All were glued in place with 3m silicon. It isn't glue and it isn't permanent, but it holds well enough for this application and this can all be removed with no damage to the cooler. A 24 size battery box (8$ at Wal Mart) fits perfectly into the rectangle the strips create. I made two battery strap holders out of aluminum with a 1/4" stand-off made from the cutting board material. I bolted these through the sides as I was just able to reach in and secure the nuts with wide washers and and self locking nuts. All the hardware is stainless steel as anything else won't last long.
I removed the plug from the cooler drain so that any water that sloshes in can drain. Any water that comes up through the drain won't make it into the battery box and as long as the caps on the battery are tight, it wouldn't really matter if it did. I use two additional battery straps on the inside of the box to ensure that the caps won't come off if the battery is dumped on its side.
Since the battery strap holders are about 1.5" above the bottom of the cooler, I also put cleats on either side at the top and ran a bungee loop around them and accross the top of the box to keep the box snug in the hole. The box top stick about three inches above the hull, but it doesn't look too awful. A few coats of white spray paint on the battery box lid definitely improved the aesthetics. I'm hoping that this mounting scheme will also help the handling as the weight is a bit lower in the hull.
One dealer told me that when they mount a motor they buy small AGM batteries and run a wire through a hole cut in the cooler and back to an outlet mounted through the hull just behind the rear cross beam. I couldn't bring myself to drill a 3/4" hole through the hull. Another dealer suggested mounting the battery box to a piece of star board and lashing it to the tramp behind the mast. I was concerned that over time this would stress the tramp. I also like being able to to stick with the larger, cheaper, 24 size marine batteries and battery boxes as they are available everywhere I expect to sail. I will probably get a 24 size AGM marine battery when the lead acid battery that came with the boat dies as I would prefer to avoid any risk of spilled acid.
Another detail is that I had to lengthen the motor leads to reach the battery box. The cheapest way I found to do this was to buy a 12' 10 guage jumper cable (about 8$), cut off the ends and replace the stock motor leads with it. I also use a Minn Kota two wire quick connect attached to the battery and the motor leads. We actually got two of these quick connects so that we can run the motor and charge at the same time. For full day trips we have a solar charger that we lash to the forward tramp just forward of the mast so that it can recharge the battery while we are sailing. This proved very helpfull when we needed every available amp to get back into a dog leg anchorage against both wind and tide after a day sailing Pensacola Bay .
We make up for the lost cooler space with a small NRS cooler lashed to the tramp just behind the mast.
Now if only the wind will return I can stop messing with the boat and sail.
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Winging It
2007 Getaway
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