bought a solar battery maintainer for the winter...plugs into the cigarette lighter.
Question is this...will it work with the battery switch in the off position or does it have to be on 1-2 or all in order for it to charge the batteries?

Check if the cigarette lighter has power when ignition is off, plug something into it...If yes then it will help the battery...

You tucking the Aquaslut away for now? Lets go rape some prawns tomorrow

alrighty then.....no power to the 12 volt pluggin with battery switch off. So my options are to leave the switch on 1 2 or all....to use the 12 volt. Or I can connect directly to the batteries with the solar trickle charger. Anyone know what is best?

I never heard of a setup (car or boat) where the lighter socket didn't have power all the time. is there an inline fuse to the socket? check if there's power in the line to the socket
Larry

Yep....power to the socket while the battery swich is on...turn off the switch, no power. Still tryin to figure which is better, switch on 1,2 or all...or just go right to the batteries themselves?

I agree with Larry, that there is normally power to the lighter socket at all times.
It should probably come from the main power supply to the panel, and have its own fuse. Then I would suggest that if you are going to maintain a charge, you might as well charge both batteries, with the battery switch on all, or both, whichever it says. To leave the ignition switch on all winter opens up all kinds of other potential power leakage paths, and problems, and I would doubt if that would be a recomended procedure. If the batteries are fully charged when you put your boat away, and there are no power losses, they shouldn`t need a trickle charge.

what about just pulling the batteries out and storing them in the garage? Maybe put them on a battery charger before they go back in the boat in the spring?

Another solution, is to do what I do, and that is to just fish all winter!
Then there is no problem.

Yeah LW you got the right idea. That's my solution.
Aquaholic, not to worry about the lighter socket, mine doesn't have power either when the switch is off. That's the switches job, disconnect everything except the auto bilge pump. If your're not going to use the boat and don't want to remove the batteries, just hook the solar panel up directly to the batteries. Ensure the water is topped up first. If you are going to remove them to the garage, give them a bit of a charge now and then again before you put them back in the boat to ensure they are right up. Where ever you store them, put down a piece of wood or rubber first too keep them off the ground or concrete. That will kill them faster than you will believe.

Good luck.

Thanks SM, I'll be usin the boat all winter, I just got a solar trickle charger to keep the batteries topped up. The boat will sit for a week or two and then it will hit the water if the wind and rain give us a break over the winter. Just don't want the batteries to drop too much if we get a cold snap.