Small Boat, Big Upgrade: Lithium Conversion for an Axopar 37XC

Axopars are built lean. Factory electrical systems are kept to the bare minimum — small battery banks, no inverter — in favor of speed, weight savings, and clean, uncluttered layouts. That efficiency is part of what makes the boat great to drive, but it leaves little room to actually cruise and live aboard for a day on the water. This 37XC needed a system that could change that without touching what makes an Axopar an Axopar.

The factory AGM batteries were replaced with Victron Smart Pack lithium batteries, managed by a Victron VE.Bus BMS and protected with a Smart BatteryProtect. Lithium’s energy density was the key to this build — significantly more usable power in essentially the same footprint, which matters enormously on a boat where every inch below decks is accounted for. A Victron MultiPlus II inverter/charger was added where there wasn’t one before, and the hot water heater was rewired to run off it, so the owner now has hot water and real AC power at anchor, not just at the dock.

Charging was handled with a pair of Victron Orion XS DC-DC chargers, allowing the lithium bank to charge properly from the boat’s alternators. A 120V outlet was also added in the pilot house for day-to-day convenience.

For monitoring, a Victron Cerbo GX and GX Touch 50 were integrated with the boat’s NMEA 2000 network and Simrad MFD, putting battery and system status right alongside navigation data at the helm — all fit into a boat notorious for having no wasted space to spare.

The result is a boat that looks exactly as clean as it did before, but now has the power on board to actually explore Puget Sound in style — hot water, real AC capacity, and a battery bank built to keep up with how the owner wants to use the boat.