Sorry for the delay in replying, we were sailing for the past four days, no internet connection.
Norseman, take it easy. I'm not associated with Lead Crystal, I paid FULL price for the 8 batteries I bought, I'm not in the battery business, and, in keeping with the spirit of this and most online forums, I shared my personal experience in the hope it could be useful to others (less suspicious people than you, obviously). You didn't even realize batteries were just one aspect I mentioned in my post...
Kev, as with most batteries, deeper discharges lead to a decrease in cycles. The attached graphs are from the brochure (note the number of cycles).
I first contacted Betta Batteries directly (http://bettabatteries.com/) to request technical information and availability in the US, they put me in charge with the US distributor, which helped me selecting the best configuration for my need. My understanding is they are just starting operations in the US. They had the batteries I bought in stock in Chicago with delivery to the Annapolis area in three days, they arrived as promised (the truck driver was kind enough to leave the pallet right next to my boat, saving my back!). If the batteries you want are not in stock, they told me the lead time could reach 5-6 months.
Batteries were $402.11 each plus $164 shipping (Chicago to Annapolis).
Dominic, I'm still looking for suitable chargers. You can charge the batteries with any AGM-capable 3-cycle charger (I'm currently using the 10 A per battery QuickCharge). Charging is much, much faster than AGM/flooded, however, there is a technical bulletin I found online stating that with such low amperage, in time batteries start loosing capacity (it was aimed at RV people using solar chargers), to recover full capacity they recommend to once in a while discharging to 10.5V or less and recharge with high amperage (in my case 25A/30A minimum), the bulletin claims they fully recover (if any capacity was lost). In the meantime, while I find a charger, every few cycles I connect three QuickCharge terminals (30A) to charge two batteries at a time, very cumbersome but effective.
A note on our last cruise. Half way to our destination (40 miles away) the wind died. We motorsailed with very light wind for 17 miles, at low speed (2.5/3.3 knots). As I'm still adapting to the new batteries, just in case after 5 miles I started the portable generator. Coming back from our destination we started with strong headwinds on a meandering river, we motorsailed for the first 5 miles while tacking and tacking and tacking (no generator). Immediately after arriving at the marina and reading without any recovery time, the only bank we used in this trip showed over 60% charge.
Alberto
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