I just returned from helping a friend bring his Ranger 33 up from the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Baja Bash). Prior to taking the boat down there last fall, he had added a solar panel. Rather than spend the money for a decent charge controller such as those made by Blue Sky (which I personally have had good experience with), he cheaped out and bought some no name Chinese made one off of Amazon (he thinks he paid less than $20 for it).

Flash forward to about 10 days ago, we are anchored in Turtle bay to refuel and wait out some weather. He went ashore while I stayed aboard and took a nap.

I woke up to the strong smell of smoke. After determining that it had to be coming from the battery compartment under the quarter berth, I quickly removed all the crap stored there and lifted up the cushion. When I opened the access panel, a dense cloud of opaque black smoke billowed out. After a few seconds, it cleared enough that I could see open flame down there. Fortunately, a fire extinguisher was within reach and a quick squirt killed the flame.

Examining it after all the smoke had cleared out showed that the fire had started in the charge controller and that when I put it out, it was still limited to the plastic housing of the charge controller.

I shudder to think what the results might have been had I gone to shore with him.