Sorry for the delay in response... I thought i was going to get a notification upon posting of comments... preferences since edited.
I removed the ICE as it was over 30 years old, had swallowed a bit too much salt water, spent much time alone, and was about to cost me between 3-4k in rebuild...
Instead, I spent a bit less than 3k and have myself a SUPER quiet electric solution that is ready on demand. No one part of the entire system weighs more than 75 lbs (the batteries are the heaviest) and no one piece costs more than 600 bucks (the wind generator was the pricey piece). Regarding weight.. you should have seen the event that ensued humping that atomic 4 engine out of the cabin.
The loss is that I currently don't have the run time I had with gasoline... but that can be cured running a generator hooked into the system. I've yet to run out of juice, though, as i really only use the motor when I'm single handing the boat and trying to land it on my mooring.
The DC to DC converter I purchased is this one: SM2412-10 Converter
"Heavy Duty DC to DC converter. Less than 40 mv p-p ripple. Output voltage: 13.7/13.9 Output current (full load) 10A, Input Current (no load) 100ma/200ma Load regulation .015/.250 VDC"
The intent was to initially wire it into the 48 volt system like this:
Note, the 12 volt system is already connected to the 48 as it is needed to power the contactors.
There is no way to just connect the output of this converter to something that will regulate current flow for healthy charging?
Christian