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Looking for a 2005-06 288 Vista owner that can tell me what the ships system battery cable (AWG) size is. Secondly, if anyone out there has added another ships system battery, has located it on the port side near the vacuflush system and what size cable used to wire in parallel to existing ships battery. Thirdly, if someone has added an inverter, what size (watts) and brand and where they located it. Thanks for your consideration.

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"One Moor Time" 2006 288 Vista
"Kalin II" 1995 258 Vista
"Kalin" 1985 Four Winns 215 Santara

On a previous boat I did the following:

For the battery you need 1 gauge copper wire minimum to handle 100 amps current. You will probably never pull 100 amps but better to be safe than sorry. Your existing boat wire is probably 2 gauge. I went to a local welding shop and had them make up all the cables I needed. Welding cables are very flexible and they will put the ends on for you. I think I ended up with 1/0 gauge wire if I remember right but that was a little overkill.
I made the battery parallel cables at 18" length which was plenty for my application.

I used an inexpensive Harbor Freight 2000 watt continuous inverter (4000 watt surge). I wanted to be able to run the microwave or the built in A/C as I did not have a built in generator on that boat. It held up fine with no issues for over 3 years before I sold the boat.
I mounted in the engine compartment so there was not much line loss (short cables) and again had the welding supply place make me up some cables to the correct length in 1/0 gauge. Again about 18" is all I needed. I mounted just above the battery on the forward bulkhead.

From there it is a matter of figuring out how your going to wire into the ships system or run your wires to the forward cabin. Just make sure you get marine grade wire to run to the cabin area.
What are you trying to run off the inverter?

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The Dance II
2007 278 Vista
6.2L Mercruiser

As to wire size, you need to do the math. Most likely 2 awg or 1awg. Point is, load and distance to equal the size wire you need. I would also use marine wire because it is tinned. Which is less likely to turn green on you and last longer.

As far as mounting a inverter. The last place you want it is in the engine compartment. Most invertors are not ignition proof. I had a V258 and I installed my inverter by the outside trash bin. I had to drill thur a bulkhead to run the wires so it was sealed off.