Recently acquired Antares 30 Fly, advice needed

[MochiCraft35Fly]

Dear all,

I have recently purchased a Beneteau Antares 30 Fly and have some questions regarding making some improvements

1. Dinghy - I plan to buy a small RIB (we are a family of 5) and to use it for some light water sports for kids. I have my eyes set on light Zodiac 360 Alu Rib and a 15hp outboard. This setup is pretty large (both size and weight), but I am strongly considering it because of it being fun for the kids. Weight alone would be around 110 kgs, which begs the question "Can it be safely stored on the swimming platform?". We don't plan to travel much or in anything but light to moderate seas, but I am sure improvement to the support of the platform would be needed to support this weight.

2. Solar panels - I have some panels installed, 3 flexible ones, but I am not sure of the power they supply (solar charger is not "Smart Type" so I cant see the performance of the panels. Where is the best place to install solar panels ?The only place can think of is right behind the windscreen on the flybridge.

3. Batteries - My current service battery is a plain truck start battery. I plan to swap it with a battery bank of deep cycle batteries. The only question I have is what is a reasonable size of the battery bank ? I know that limiting factor is the size of solar panels which can be installed (due to available space) and I currently limited consumption (refrigerator, lights and music system ) but I don't have enough experience to say how much power these draw on daily basis. There will be a night or two away from my birth so I need to try an manage power consumption.

4. Having in mind all of these factors I have been considering a possibility of installing a generator. I know that this is a bit of an overkill, but based on experience of other Antares 30 owners (I have seen some for sale adds which mention that generator was fitted) I would like to know where did the factory find space to fit one .

Thanks so much, your help and advice is appreciated.

Best regards,

 

[baldyash]

I also have an Antares 30. I would be very retisant about a large weight on the platform in a sea way. The supports underneath put a lot of pressure on the transom over quite a small area. I am unable to answer your other questions, sorry
Great boat though!

 

[simonfraser]

i have a 120W solar on the aft canopy
2x 100Ah trojans
use about 30% of the total capacity in 24hrs with fridge OR heater running for 24 hrs
(overnight if it's cold the heater is on and the food outside in the cold)
when the boat is not used after the 24hr session, the solar puts it all back in over two days, location essex

i would install a victor bluetooth shunt first of all, that shows you what goes in / out and go from there

 

[MochiCraft35Fly]

Thanks for your replys

@baldyash I feel that the way we plan to use the boat, only inland waterway experience so far, we are not going to be atempting to go outside of our comfot zone. We plan to spend most of our nights in secluded marina and I doubt that we will dare to travel far or in uncomfortable conditions, but I understand your caution. The dighy weighs 50kgs and the outboard less than 40kgs (planning to get a yamaha 2 stroke), but even so I beleieve that it will be a challenge.

As for the boat I agree. No funny business, pretty straight forward with great economy.

@simonfraser You brought up a good point. I will get a Smart Solar charger and test the setup. The batteries I have are 300ah in total, so the only question will be if panels can charge them fully.

Regards,

 

[Rangerman]

Hi All, I have the Antares 30 fly fitted with a 140AH domestic (and 140AH start battery) which so far have proved OK for an overnight but with the fridge, tv and heater on the domestic would need charging half way through the next day. That’s not a problem as we also have fitter a Fischer Panda 400s generator, this take ups some space between the fuel tank and the engine bay bulkhead.
If you use mainly marinas with shore power then the 140Ah is fine if you are at anchor then 140Ah is borderline.

 

[MochiCraft35Fly]

Hi All, I have the Antares 30 fly fitted with a 140AH domestic (and 140AH start battery) which so far have proved OK for an overnight but with the fridge, tv and heater on the domestic would need charging half way through the next day. That’s not a problem as we also have fitter a Fischer Panda 400s generator, this take ups some space between the fuel tank and the engine bay bulkhead.
If you use mainly marinas with shore power then the 140Ah is fine if you are at anchor then 140Ah is borderline.

Thanks for confirming my doubts. I assumed that the existing 145 ah battery would not be enough, so I plan to go with 300ah battery bank. The only concern I have if this setup will work, 145ah start battery and 300ah service battery, due to the fact that battery isolator is fitted. I am not sure if battery isolator requires that batteries (or battery banks) are of same size.

Do you, by any chance, have pictures of the genset installation ?

 

[MochiCraft35Fly]

An update regarding the dinhy situation.

As it turns out, the dinghy is huge, which was predictable as it is 360 cm
pic is attached



This means that issue number 1 is soved, because it can not be stored on the swimming platform due to its size

 

[Rangerman]

Thanks for confirming my doubts. I assumed that the existing 145 ah battery would not be enough, so I plan to go with 300ah battery bank. The only concern I have if this setup will work, 145ah start battery and 300ah service battery, due to the fact that battery isolator is fitted. I am not sure if battery isolator requires that batteries (or battery banks) are of same size.

Do you, by any chance, have pictures of the genset installation ?

I will send you some pics when im down next week,

 

[Rangerman]

Thanks for confirming my doubts. I assumed that the existing 145 ah battery would not be enough, so I plan to go with 300ah battery bank. The only concern I have if this setup will work, 145ah start battery and 300ah service battery, due to the fact that battery isolator is fitted. I am not sure if battery isolator requires that batteries (or battery banks) are of same size.

Do you, by any chance, have pictures of the genset installation ?

Hi, pc of the Fischer panda generator installed on my antares 30

 

[Rangerman]

Try again!