Great Loop Chronicles Part 22
Marine
- Sponsor
- OPTIMA Batteries
- Location
- New Orleans, LA
The Great Loop Chronicles will be an ongoing series, following the travels of OPTIMA Batteries staffer, Jim McIlvaine, as he travels America's Great Loop, a 6000+ nautical mile journey around the Eastern United States.
Somehow we found a way to make it to Pass Christian in time for me to rent a car and drive to OPTIMA's Ultimate Street Car series at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans. Before I made it there, I had a couple other stops to make. The first was a barbershop, as I was long overdue for a haircut and had no idea when I'd have another chance. The second was to Pass Christian Yacht Works.
My Carver 466 came with 11 batteries and the survey (pre-purchase inspection) indicated the starting battery for the generator was done and several of the others were on their way out. They were flooded batteries and when I took a closer look at them, I found they hadn't been watered in a while and the tops of the cells were exposed and drying out. I've swapped out plenty of batteries in my day, but I've never re-wired a 6V series-parallel bank to 12V and I was hoping Pass Christian Yacht Works could make sure it was done right.
I kept a supply of D31M BLUETOP batteries at my home in Florida, because we live on one of the world's best bass fisheries in the Harris Chain. That chain of lakes seems to host multiple bass tournaments every week from January through June, so I've literally had hundreds of tournament anglers (and lots of recreational anglers) find their way into my canal, where I greet them with questions about the batteries on their boats. I always share my phone number and encourage them to call if they ever had any battery questions and invariably, I get a couple calls a year from tournament anglers, who had to get towed off the lake, because their batteries were dead. They needed replacements and no one was open to sell batteries until well after their tournament would resume the following morning.
After that happened enough times, I began stocking BLUETOP D31Ms at my house and invited them over for a late-night battery swap. These anglers could buy the batteries on our website, I'd email our fulfillment team to let them know I was delivering their order with my inventory and we'd get them back on the water to finish their tournament the next morning. I didn't know how long the Loop would take us to complete, but I didn't expect to be doing any Lake Harris angler battery swaps in 2026 and all the batteries in my garage had 2025 build dates, so I figured I'd might as well take them along. I also brought an OPTIMA Q31M-DP120 ORANGETOP lithium battery to show to anyone who might be interested (and I've shown it quite a few times).
The onboard chargers on my boat were designed for lead-acid batteries and had specific settings for "Flooded, Gel and AGM" batteries. We always recommend using AGM settings for OPTIMA's AGM batteries and avoid using the "Gel" or even "Gel/AGM" settings, as they may not fully-charge non-gel batteries and could damage them over time. A check with our engineering group about the parameters on my charging systems indicated that while they were not ideal for OPTIMA's ORANGETOP lithium batteries, they could be used with good results.
I had already soured on the idea of anchoring out a lot on the Loop, which is where the high capacity, great charge acceptance and exceptional cycle life of lithium batteries would really shine, so they didn't seem warranted for the way I planned to use my boat. On the nights we had anchored out so far, the house batteries were only called upon to keep the refrigerator running along with a few lights and outlets. The draw from the four air conditioning units was deemed too much for Carver's liking, so the house batteries weren't wired into those systems. While the fridge and other electrical draws were not that significant, it was taxing what was left of the capacity of the 6-volt house batteries, so I knew they needed replacement.
Pass Christian Yacht Works was able to squeeze me into their schedule the following Tuesday, so I made that appointment and headed to New Orleans. As luck would have it, a marine supply store was directly on my route to the track, so I stopped for some supplies. They say "BOAT" stands for "Bust Out Another Thousand" and I've learned the truth of that statement. What you see in the picture above represents about $500 worth or merchandise. That list includes a couple more fenders (we managed to lose a couple along the way), some longer lines that would work better on piling slips, a light bulb for one of our navigational lights and a telescoping boat hook that would give us a little more reach when attempting to lasso a piling. From there, I headed to NOLA Motorsports Park for the first of two work weekends. See what comes next here.
Somehow we found a way to make it to Pass Christian in time for me to rent a car and drive to OPTIMA's Ultimate Street Car series at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans. Before I made it there, I had a couple other stops to make. The first was a barbershop, as I was long overdue for a haircut and had no idea when I'd have another chance. The second was to Pass Christian Yacht Works.
My Carver 466 came with 11 batteries and the survey (pre-purchase inspection) indicated the starting battery for the generator was done and several of the others were on their way out. They were flooded batteries and when I took a closer look at them, I found they hadn't been watered in a while and the tops of the cells were exposed and drying out. I've swapped out plenty of batteries in my day, but I've never re-wired a 6V series-parallel bank to 12V and I was hoping Pass Christian Yacht Works could make sure it was done right.
I kept a supply of D31M BLUETOP batteries at my home in Florida, because we live on one of the world's best bass fisheries in the Harris Chain. That chain of lakes seems to host multiple bass tournaments every week from January through June, so I've literally had hundreds of tournament anglers (and lots of recreational anglers) find their way into my canal, where I greet them with questions about the batteries on their boats. I always share my phone number and encourage them to call if they ever had any battery questions and invariably, I get a couple calls a year from tournament anglers, who had to get towed off the lake, because their batteries were dead. They needed replacements and no one was open to sell batteries until well after their tournament would resume the following morning.
After that happened enough times, I began stocking BLUETOP D31Ms at my house and invited them over for a late-night battery swap. These anglers could buy the batteries on our website, I'd email our fulfillment team to let them know I was delivering their order with my inventory and we'd get them back on the water to finish their tournament the next morning. I didn't know how long the Loop would take us to complete, but I didn't expect to be doing any Lake Harris angler battery swaps in 2026 and all the batteries in my garage had 2025 build dates, so I figured I'd might as well take them along. I also brought an OPTIMA Q31M-DP120 ORANGETOP lithium battery to show to anyone who might be interested (and I've shown it quite a few times).
The onboard chargers on my boat were designed for lead-acid batteries and had specific settings for "Flooded, Gel and AGM" batteries. We always recommend using AGM settings for OPTIMA's AGM batteries and avoid using the "Gel" or even "Gel/AGM" settings, as they may not fully-charge non-gel batteries and could damage them over time. A check with our engineering group about the parameters on my charging systems indicated that while they were not ideal for OPTIMA's ORANGETOP lithium batteries, they could be used with good results.
I had already soured on the idea of anchoring out a lot on the Loop, which is where the high capacity, great charge acceptance and exceptional cycle life of lithium batteries would really shine, so they didn't seem warranted for the way I planned to use my boat. On the nights we had anchored out so far, the house batteries were only called upon to keep the refrigerator running along with a few lights and outlets. The draw from the four air conditioning units was deemed too much for Carver's liking, so the house batteries weren't wired into those systems. While the fridge and other electrical draws were not that significant, it was taxing what was left of the capacity of the 6-volt house batteries, so I knew they needed replacement.
Pass Christian Yacht Works was able to squeeze me into their schedule the following Tuesday, so I made that appointment and headed to New Orleans. As luck would have it, a marine supply store was directly on my route to the track, so I stopped for some supplies. They say "BOAT" stands for "Bust Out Another Thousand" and I've learned the truth of that statement. What you see in the picture above represents about $500 worth or merchandise. That list includes a couple more fenders (we managed to lose a couple along the way), some longer lines that would work better on piling slips, a light bulb for one of our navigational lights and a telescoping boat hook that would give us a little more reach when attempting to lasso a piling. From there, I headed to NOLA Motorsports Park for the first of two work weekends. See what comes next here.