Belize 43: Routing wires for solar panels on hardtop

[Chat de Mer]

Hi,

We added a hardtop to our Belize and are about to add solar panels. If anyone has done this, we would love to know how you routed the wires from the hardtop down to the deck and into the lazarette space.

Thanks!

Eve & Steve

[Chat de Mer]

In case anyone else is looking for options on this…we ended up rounting the wires into the top pf one of the hardtop stainless posts, through the post and out the bottom of it into the lazarette. We could see the three mounting screws for the post and drilled a hole in the middle from the underside, so the wires could come out the bottom of the tube. Then drilled a hole in the partition between the space where the fuel tank sits and the battery compartment and ran a long PVC tube over the top of the batteries in the port engine compartment. Fed the wires from the lazarette into the tube and over to the solar panel controller. It was difficult mostly because the fiberglass of the partition and where the post is mounted were so thick it took hours to drill through. No doubt quicker with better tools and skills!

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Chat de Mer

In case anyone else is looking for options on this…we ended up rounting the wires into the top pf one of the hardtop stainless posts, through the post and out the bottom of it into the lazarette. We could see the three mounting screws for the post and drilled a hole in the middle from the underside, so the wires could come out the bottom of the tube. Then drilled a hole in the partition between the space where the fuel tank sits and the battery compartment and ran a long PVC tube over the top of the batteries in the port engine compartment. Fed the wires from the lazarette into the tube and over to the solar panel controller. It was difficult mostly because the fiberglass of the partition and where the post is mounted were so thick it took hours to drill through. No doubt quicker with better tools and skills!

Can you post foto of your hardtop please. How did you do it, foam core?
Thinking about making it longer like seawind and incl. Arch and move traveler of main up on roof. Or just a simple version.
Also high up on big project list, just finished lithium install incl. Rewiring/upgrading of the whole 230V system to be able to run 7kw continuously. Switched to full electric galley too.

[Chat de Mer]

I'll snap some shots of the hardtop when next on the boat. Yes, it was made with a foam core by our SF Bay rigger.

[Brickwede]

Hello Char de Mer
I also want to make a hardtop. Can you send me photos, plans of how it was made etc?

[Chat de Mer]

Sorry, don’t have plans or photos of how it was made. It was constructed by Panda Rigging https://pandarigging.net/pages/about-us