I just bought a Sea Ray SLX 270 and I'm sure the batteries are going to be dead when I get it out this weekend. It has the motorized engine hatch where they keep the batteries. Is there another way to jump start it with out manually opening the hatch to get to the batteries? I checked with the dealer and read the owners manual which says you should never jump in the engine compartment, but they don't know. Thanks for any knowledge on it.

maybe try plugging in your jumper box into the cig outlet?

If everything was off and the battery switches were off, you should still have enough charge to open the hatch. If not, just run some 12v power to the back of the hatch switch on the dash.

Having been there once, I made a tool for that job. 20 feet of speaker wire, two Gator clips and a lighter plug. It stays in the glove box now. Total cost was about 6 bucks. Wire is long enough to reach the next boat or a battery on the dock or the ground beside the boat.

If their is any charge in the batteries, have someone push up on the hatch while you hold the switch. Normally you can get it open just enough to get in there to jump the battery. I know many Baja's have an emergency prongs at the back seat that are directly wired to the hatch that you can hook jumper cables to, then you push the two red buttons and the hatch will come up. I only mention this because Brunswick built both sea ray and Baja and may have used similar systems.

Boat comes with a jumper to use for this. It was simply a 12 volt accessory plug that you plugged into your 12 V accessory plug that had two wires that you hooked to a battery. Easy to make if it's missing. Check in your owners bag. Also, there is an access hatch so that you can access pin that you can pull out of the bottom of actuator. Be careful hatch is real heavy.

Apply 12 volts to the actuator switch.....always works for me. I even used a small charger for the 12v.