I really like this: Atom Voyages: Solar Tracker. (Oops, broken link.)
On S.V. Sapien, James and I had a small solar panel on a cup-and-ball mount and another on a swivel. We adjusted the position of the panels throughout the day in order to get the most power from them. With very little official wattage in panels, we made a great deal more electricity than I would have expected possible. I’m talking a week’s worth of power before having to run the engine, and that includes watching movies on the laptop pretty much every night.
On S.V. Nomad, all three panels were fixed-mounted to dodger/bimini. The two smaller ones are still mounted on the dodger, under the boom. We get power from them – no doubt. But not anywhere near their full capacity for the full day. The third one came off with the bimini (a ridiculous installation – completely occluded the view when heeling) and it’s on the side deck with clip-type disconnects on the electrical cable. It’s a silly amount of resistance, but we’re working on better solutions.
The mount linked to above is a better solution, for sure. Whether or not we use this model, I think we should seriously consider putting in goal posts at the back of the boat. With the Rutland 913 wind charger on one post and a fully adjustable solar panel on the other, we’ll be in a very flexible position for making power.
That plus these absolutely gorgeous new batteries we’re adding to the system: Mastervolt Slimline 12v AGM Batteries should give us much comfort in the power department.
I’d still like to add a panel that could produce a lot more 12volt power, maybe along the order of a 120watt panel… I think that, along with the new batteries would really put us over the “off the grid” wall.
Yeah – the new goal-post thing could hold a larger panel, for sure. So we could leave the dodger-mounted ones and add one nice big one aft. Then if we got the flexible panels on the dinghy…wow – swimming in power!
And I bet you money that guy could do it up without problems. As a matter of fact, we could draw out the whole aft-rail and goal-post idea and get a quote from him. Or we could do like we were thinking – make the aft rails ourselves – but get him to make the swiveling base.
…I wonder if we could take those drawings over to Atlantic steel and have him knock that project out in a day or so.
one nice big one aft.the dinghy…wow I’m getting a swiveling base.Totally “off the grid” Good luck with this project