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Nearly 30 years ago, when I was working on the systems and electrical design for a 74' ketch for the yacht designer Joel White, he gave me some very sage advice. He said that anyone can design yacht systems that are complicated, but it requires genius to make them simple. Ever since, I’ve strived for simplicity in my systems design, so when Ellery Brown of Hylan & Brown Boatbuilders called about a new-construction project he was working on, in which the owner wanted to be able to run his air-conditioning all night, with just battery power, I knew there would be some challenges. The boat, designed by Reuel Parker, was a 43' shallow-draft power cruiser driven by two 200-hp outboard motors (see page 72).

The boat’s owner, Erik deBoer, is quite experienced and had some very definite ideas concerning the use and enjoyment of his new boat. I initially spent a fair amount of time working with him to understand how he was going to use the boat, what his expectations were, and how we could achieve those goals while keeping things as simple as possible. He also wanted to build some redundancy into the systems. So, for example, I had to consider how the batteries might be charged through a variety of methods.

Since the boat would operate in the Florida Keys year-round, one of the major requirements was the ability to run the air-conditioning for at least 12 hours without the nuisance of generator noise. Erik also wanted to be able to use the heat-pump capability of the air-conditioning to take the morning chill off the cabin while still in Maine. Battery capacity thus became the major driving element.

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