Solar on a stick?

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I have a 36' Hans Christian, double ender. It's hardly exactly what I'd want it to be, but it works for right now. The problems for me:

- looks like shit
- those plastic clamps will fail eventually (there are better stainless ones available)
- waves and spray keep tagging the bottom of the panels, which can't be good for them.

My plan is to extend out the stanchions farther forward (welder) so I can mount them horizontally and farther forward. In regards the position it's been fine. The sun moves around the boat anyway, and yesterday around 11am the sun was 51 degrees off the horizon (was using my sextant for another reason) so being able to stick a fender lengthwise under the the bottom of the panel kicks it out to a perfect angle.

Rebel Heart - Sailing, cruising, liveaboard blog and website - Eric's Blog - finally mounted the solar*panels

T'is a shame we cannot buy interconnecting singular cells of an output capacity similar to yours where we could effectively place the'tiles' on the edge of a capping rail, cabin top Taffrail, whatever and electrically inter-connect.
Effectively our marine usage of panels is based on adopting a shed type unit to a boat.
Yes my idea is very custom but do hi-output tiles exist????

[Dustymc]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

T'is a shame we cannot buy interconnecting singular cells of an output capacity similar to yours where we could effectively place the'tiles' on the edge of a capping rail, cabin top Taffrail, whatever and electrically inter-connect.
Effectively our marine usage of panels is based on adopting a shed type unit to a boat.
Yes my idea is very custom but do hi-output tiles exist????

Dearest Mister Lagoon4us,

[hellosailor]

Well, there are the folks who might have started this all at www.solarstik.com

Their gear is pricey--but top quality. Some of it would be no cheaper to fabricate if you had your own machine shop and sources, they've paid a lot of attention to details.

Among other things they have a "socket" that you can install in your deck, and then a solar "mast" drops into the socket, carrying solar panels and a small windgen as well. That makes it relatively easy to deploy and secure, and the only real structural part is putting that socket in your deck and bracing it adequately from below.

I'm sure they'd sell you the socket and a piece of mast (3 or 4" diameter as I recall?) if that was all you needed.

[Lagoon4us]

Solar on a stick? ----- solarstik????

Neat stuff...