SECURING SOLAR PANEL

[Killick69]

Anyone who has done this/anyone with ideas, please comment. I need to fit solar panel either to coach house roof or onto pushpit. It is a mk3 Top hat. If mounted on cabin top, will it be in the way. The cabin top is curved and bottom of panel is flat, how do you overcome this? I am reluctant to drill/screw into cabin roof......any other ways to secure panel? Pros/cons of these 2 locations? any other good spots to mount a panel? Are there any kits to attache panel to behind pushpit? Any ideas and thoughts welcome. I have thought of mounting the panel high abvoe the pushpit and having a seat (temporary or permantent at hback of cockpit, with solar panel providing some shade. However, this would mess with the idea I had of placing a step at the stern (and possible having an opening thru the pushpit for boarding the boat. What do u people think?

[Miker]

Killick you'll get a lot of opionions on this.

I inherited the solar setup on Dulcamara from the previous owner. It's simple, and it's out of the way, I just don't like the aesthetics personally. It's a simple 4 x 4 ripped into two 2x4 which are clamped over the pushpit rails, with an aluminiun angle frame bolted to the top and the solar panels on that. When I get the time, or the money, I'll add a targa type set up to the pushpit and mount the panels on top.

I've built the seat you speak of too, which is a fantastic addition for either lazing around, or sitting on when someone else is on the tiller, or you're on auto. Mine is of teak decking and to preserve the finish, I've had a cover made.

Here's a distance shot.

And one that kind of shows how the seat fits, with the new covers.



Hope this gives you some ideas of what to do, or not to do as the case may be.

Michael

[Dolphin]

G'Day Mr Killick.
Solar Panel
I fitted an 18Watt solar panel to the pushpit. Two 1inch galvanised saddles with a piece of 3mm rubber around the pushpit pipe allows youto rotate the panel up to the vertical to access the marlin board at the stern. A short piece of VB Cord stops it from falling down. The VB cord is taken down to the middle rail. Hint, the panel should have a few degrees of slope to allow for pollution (bird poo) and dust to run off in the rain. I would recommend using stainless saddles as the gal ones, even the hot dipped ones from electrical wholesalers, rust easily.
Seats,
Felicite has two dicky little seats in the corners of the pushpit and they would allow access to the centre of the pushpit. These seats are a trap when sailing as there is no bouyancy in that section of the boat and it will trim the stern down a lot. The seat is attached by two 1/4" bolts through the middle rail and a support under the middle of the seat to the fibreglass cockpit seats. The original came with a 200mm x 25mm teak board that fitted to the front of the pulpit, (The Mk 1 seat). You could do the same for a lashup to try it out before you commit yourself.

For what its worth and I hope it helps.
Greg.

[Dolphin]

Here's a pic of the panel and seats taken from a video of a seal swimming under Felicite.

Felicite Seats n Solar panel a.jpg (198.97 KiB) Viewed 3074 times

Hope it helps
Greg.

[Tales]

The setup on Tales uses a barby mount bracket from Whitworths and a couple of aluminium angles trimmed to size.

Mounts onto the aft pulpit but is easy to remove and reposition if we want to use the boarding ladder on the transom.

It will also mount onto the stanchions if needed when the normal spot is in shade.

Easy to swivel and keep in the sun when sailing but it's not a very big solar panel.

Tom

SolarBarby1 (2).jpg (156.37 KiB) Viewed 3071 times

SolarBarby2 (2).jpg (117.81 KiB) Viewed 3071 times

[Killick69]

Thanks for the suggestions and photos. Will fit panel using decking timber attached to pushpit rails
with s/s u-bolts and see how that goes (need a quick and easy solution for now). I gotta stop playing and get sailing>

[Dolphin]

John (Killick) your idea of using U bolts for the panel struck a chord and I decided to use Stainless ones instead of gal saddles to mount the panel. I needed to use some chopping board to pack up the ubolts as the threads weren't long enough. The ones I used were from Bias and they had 4 small pinchs that could be filed off to utilise the whole of the U bolt.
These discussions really help to get the ideas flowing, and its fun.
Thanks everyone, Greg.