Minimum standards

Not every boat is a Cinderella, but they all should be. This picture is from a smaller name brand boat, or at least a boat with a familiar name. The builder saved a couple of bucks by taking a minimalist approach to everything, especially the electrical system.

The minimal standard for any powered vessel is that it should have at least two batteries.....

and a battery switch....

in addition to a fuse block.

Then doing a simple task like installing a small GPS or a stereo would be easy, and when the boat's toys suck all of the juice from one battery, you have a second battery available to start your engine.

So the next time you are shopping for a new boat at a dealer, this is the minimum standard, don't settle for less!