Anyone tried? Floating panels?

[Colin A]

Funny this showed up in an email today

https://www.blue-isles.com/moorings

[Scotty Kiwi]

Originally Posted by zstine

I like this idea and think the issues of theft, visibility, shading, launching and retrieving are all easily resolved with good design. How's this for a suggestion. Bolt the solar array to the transom on a hinge and each panel bolts to the next via a hinge. To stow, the array of panels is folded accordion style against the transom and secured. Airbags permanently attached under the panels are inflated to deploy, and deflated to retrieve. With a good design, this could be accomplished practically hands off with a pump that can also suck and a supply tube fed to the air bags. The airbags can be large enough to keep the panels a foot or more above the water, so visibility should be fine and off the transom, there is little shade from a sailboat. Stealing them would require un-bolting and if you tack weld the nuts, it would be quite a job to get them off. I drew a little diagram...

So the dimensions of a 12v 180w panel are 1580 x 808. Zsinte's diagram could be adjusted to have two panels folding out lengthwise from the transom. One fold, extending 3.12 meters. There could conceivably be 4 - 5 panel widths across the beam of a fat arse boat, making 8 to 10 panels, say 1800w. Enough for a hair dryer, burnt toast, computer and a good bandwidth cell connection.

Each panel is 15 kg, total weight to float 150 kg, with 1/3rd of that supported on the transom, leaving 100 kg to be floated. Not to hard with interlinked flotation tubes at fixed points on the panels and the pump for the RIB.

Alternatively suspend the whole thing from the davits.

Either way, damn ugly. Aren't yachts supposed to be pretty? But then again, if it means "she who stays indoors" can have her hairdryer in an isolated, sheltered, permanently waveless anchorage that you're not going to have to move from too quickly. Yeah, plenty of those around!

Or what Jim says. On the safety lines with a witches hat of supporting lines from the spreaders in your ketch.

Or why go sailing in the first place? Stay in the condo and keep using grid power.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Haven't flexible roll up solar panels been invented yet? Just pump some air into them and voila! They unroll!

[Shrew]

In both the Chinese solar farm example and the mooring example, these are moored to the seabed on a substantial platform.

That is not really what is being proposed in this thread.

Also, people are allowed to have contrary opinions. There is no need to lash out at people who don't agree with yours. Pointing out both the positive and negative side of an idea is the core of brainstorming and troubleshooting.

Pointing out positive only and ignoring negative is not 'brainstorming'. One might be familiar with the fable "The Emperors New Clothes".