Afixing Solar Panels to Sprayhood

[lpdsn]

I'm thinking of getting a solar panel or two. The boat has quite a sizeable sprayhood supported by a gantry that also supports the mainsheet. This is the obvious place to put panels providing they're light enough, and it just happens to be a very convenient place to lead the wires down below through the gantry. I reckon there would be room for 6 X 50W panels, but I'll probably just go for two with separate cheap controllers (working assumption that the boom & sail shadow can only affect one at a time).

I don't have great charging demands at the moment and could look at more panels and more efficient controllers if I ever do.

I've come up with a few ideas about how I could mount the panels on the top of the sprayhood, but they're all just that: ideas. Has anyone experience of afixing solar panels to a sprayhood? How did you do it? What are the pros and cons? What would you do differently next time? Pictures?

 

[Stemar]

Since nobody with any real knowledge has replied, here's my 2 penny'th.

Two panels wired in parallel will work fine through a single controller - that's the setup I have, albeit on a much smaller scale. I got a 10amp dual battery job from Sunstore, but they also have a 20amp job for about £50. I set up up to charge the starter battery until it burps then turn its attention to the domestic one, on the basis that, if the lights go dim, I can always run the engine if I can get it started, but if the engine battery's low as well, I'm stuffed.

As for mounting, I made up a frame from Ally profile and pop rivets to mount the panels on my hatch garage, but I can't see why you couldn't to do the same to put them on the gantry. If you never fold your sprayhood, it'd be easier to get a rigid mounting by going across to a hoop on the sprayhood, but a bit of ingenuity should allow you to do something just using the gantry.

Do give some thought to what the mainsheet might do with a bit of help from sod's law in the event of a crash gybe!

 

[lpdsn]

Since nobody with any real knowledge has replied, here's my 2 penny'th.

Two panels wired in parallel will work fine through a single controller - that's the setup I have, albeit on a much smaller scale. I got a 10amp dual battery job from Sunstore, but they also have a 20amp job for about £50. I set up up to charge the starter battery until it burps then turn its attention to the domestic one, on the basis that, if the lights go dim, I can always run the engine if I can get it started, but if the engine battery's low as well, I'm stuffed.

As for mounting, I made up a frame from Ally profile and pop rivets to mount the panels on my hatch garage, but I can't see why you couldn't to do the same to put them on the gantry. If you never fold your sprayhood, it'd be easier to get a rigid mounting by going across to a hoop on the sprayhood, but a bit of ingenuity should allow you to do something just using the gantry.

Do give some thought to what the mainsheet might do with a bit of help from sod's law in the event of a crash gybe!

Thanks for replying.

I'm not worried about extra controllers, as by eschewing MPPT controllers (for now) I can get Chinese ones on the internet pretty cheaply.

The gantry is maybe not as you envisage it. I've just tried a websearch to find pictures and noted that Peter Poland called it an arch in PBO. It's effectively an arched Al box girder to support the mainsheet. Anyway, I found this, which has a photo near the end that shows the arch/gantry clearly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_l5-GoJUHE

If you have any musical taste whatsoever you may prefer to mute your speakers whilst looking at the link.

I never fold the sprayhood - it is quite firmly attached to the gantry with 6mm sail luff tape in slots on the surface of the gantry, so it's a once or twice a year job to remove it.

Any loose mainsheet falls aft of the gantry during a gybe where it prefers to attack the instrument displays. Solar panels affixed to the sprayhood would be at least a foot or two further for'd and I can't see the mainsheet bothering with them unless they are very expensive ones.

In the absence of other people's experience, I might experiment with one 50W solar panel to start with. It was just that I'll have to take the sprayhood back to the sailmakers for mods for the panels, so I was hoping only one trip would be needed.