So I wondered what other people have done:

What panels do you have?

What size are they?

Where do you put them?

How are they mounted?

Thanks in advance.

Martin

335/50 Tringa

Thank you for the perfect excuse to post a showy-offy picture of my legendary kite-trimming skills which should also show the position of my solar panel, and your old mainsail looking equally lovely.

It's a 65w panel, semi-flexible, which is simply screwed to the cabin top in front of the mainsheet track. You can walk on it without damaging it. The cable goes through the cabin roof and then runs inside the headlining down to a Rutland HRDi controller under the port saloon bunk next to the house batteries which manages both solar and wind. I say 'simply': all I had to do was to pay Adam McMenemy, Emsworth's finest marine electronic engineer, who was doing a lot of other stuff at the time, but I have subsequently replaced and rewired the controller (salt water, long story, not entirely my fault) and it was a doddle. I think the panel itself was about £90 in 2022.

In decent sunshine it can put out an amp or two even when slightly shaded as it inevitably is by the boom, which means I can leave the fridge on 24/7 even in Scotland (although I guess lack of sunshine is balanced by lack of ambient temperature). I can stay at anchor indefinitely but going sailing and using the autopilot and instruments of course uses many more amps. We tried to fit something bigger but I didn't want it extending onto the non-slip either side and the raised bit around the main hatch limits the available area too. I gather you can get about 50% more power for the same area even in the three years since, so I may treat myself to an upgrade next winter when I'm back south as I'd quite like to remove the noisy wind turbine.

Hope that helps

Peter

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