when i started out i only had the diesel to recharge the batteries. not bad when you're motoring down the ditch every day but not much use when sailing or anchored out for a few days; don't really want to run the diesel just to charge the batteries. my only big user is the fridge, but still i'm running about 60 to 80 amps a day.

four years ago i bought a used honda 1000 at the ssca gam in melbourne - $300 (new about $700). i was going to plug it into my shore power inlet but my onboard charger is only rated at 10 amps and it would take six to eight hours of running time to recharge my batteries. so i bought a 'smart charger' for car batteries rated at 35 amps.

fortunately my batteries are reasonably accessible - just open the lazarette, take out two milk crates, remove the four wing nuts holding down the battery cover, and lift off the cover. the batteries, by the way, are four trojan golf carts and one size 27 'starting' battery. then just start the honda, hook up the charger, plug it in, and run it for two hours. i got to where i would just put a quart of gas in the honda and let it run until it was out of gas. since i store it in the lazarette, it's a bit safer to store it that way.

i found that i could run the honda two hours a day and that would meet my needs. last year i installed a kyocera 135 watt solar panel which can give me about 40+ amps a day here in sunny florida. now i only need to run the honda every two or three days. if i could find a practical way of adding a second solar panel i wouldn't need to run the honda at all.

as far as safety goes, if you have a dinghy engine then you have gasoline on board. i run the honda out of gas before stowing it below. i keep gas in steel containers in a safe place on deck. i keep the honda downwind on deck when running it. by the way, it's super quiet so your neighbors won't give you dirty looks. last winter i was in a mooring field with a sailboat about fifty feet away from me. he had a honda 2000 on his swim platform that he ran all night for some reason (electric heat?). i could barely hear it running from my cockpit. in our berth at night i couldn't hear it at all.

i would recommend the honda 1000 or 2000. the 1000 is enough for me - it can run up to about a 45 amp charger. but for a few hundred more you can buy the 2000 and if you think you need that much it's probably a better buy. i didn't consider the 2000 both because i didn't need that much power and because it wouldn't quite fit in my lazarette.