Solar Panels

Generating power is a big problem for us on a small craft with no inboard engine. It is also super important, if only from a safety perspective. We need power to fun our navigation lights at night, we need power to check in on the radio every morning or to call the Coast Guard if anything goes wrong. The SSB will consume a lot of power. We have handheld GPS, VHF and satellite phone (rental) but it would be nice to run off of the main GPS which will be connected to the battery.

We will also run the autopilot and that will be a major draw. We want to have a laptop to run navigation software, weather info viewer, etc...so we need to figure that one out too. Cabin lights will also be important but not critical as we have flashlights, etc...that run on batteries. We don't actually have to turn them on.

Our radar reflector is a piece of inert metal so it doesn't require any power. The electrical piece is Nathan's job. He is working on calculating our daily energy budget. If we understand our consumption needs, we can match it with supply, leaving plenty of spare power just in case. Nathan will write about this later.

Our solution is to use solar energy and two batteries. The panels will be able to charge the batteries during the day and we will use up the power at night. We are hoping for some sunny days then, which is a reasonable guess. We are replacing every single light with LEDs as it makes a huge difference in terms of power requirements (they draw nothing and run forever). We will leave with the batteries topped off and we will make sure that even if we get fog on the way out of the city, we will have enough power to run the lights. The way our wind instruments are mounted (at the stern) for the autopilot, using it upwind may be tricky as there will be a lot of disruption in wind flow right off the mainsail. So we may not run it in full wind mode during that time. Trimming the jib may also not be as important on that point of sail so the driver could drive and trim the main/adjust the backstay without the need for the autopilot.

In terms of solar panels, we just bought this marine kit:

The Sunrise mobile solar kit is compact and simple to install. Provide basic DC power for lighting, laptop computer and water pumping. It can provide up to 325 watts in 5 hours of sunshine.
1	Kyocera KC85 watt solar panel
1	Set of flush mount panel mounts for roofs #6900401 (we'll have to see if we can adapt this for a stern mount)
1	Sunsaver SS-6-L-12
50'	10/2 flat wire 50' roll #9910200
	Wiring Diagram

We also have two slightly smaller panels and a tiny little one. We are thinking of using the tiny one as a direct battery for our audio system - no energy storage required. I doubt that the person off watch will appreciate audio at night anyway...