Sailing things right

The other day I finally pulled my head out of my ass and figured out how to get more than 2kW on the boat without some giga-level overengineering.

So, the idea of building a hardtop has been brewing in my head for over a year now. But the problem was, when it came to covering it with panels, I was only looking at the biggest 600+ watt beasts, over two meters long. That way I could only fit three: two on the sides of the backstay, and one in the middle between it and the mainsheet.

And then it hit me — I grabbed a tape measure, crawled around the boat, and realized that the dimensions of my stern actually let me fit two 400W 1722x1134 panels across the back, two more in front of the backstay, and another two lengthwise up to the mainsheet. And the best part: I only need to build a frame and slap some bifacial panels on it, butt them edge to edge, seal the gaps with Sika, and boom — I’ve got a hardtop without having to build a massive roof. Just the frame.

Since I’m on the water, there’ll be plenty of reflected light, so a “440W” panel will probably push closer to 500W on a good day.
And because the panels themselves are the hardtop, I’ll save a ton of weight too, which is nice.

To avoid having to chain a whole mess of MPPTs, I’ll just grab three Victron 250/100s, which can charge up to 48 volts — perfect, since switching to 48 has also been on my mind.

Photo: The military ship is passing by the morning chill.