Mounting solar panels on a Ketch

[zeehag]

steve! where are you!!! wanna see your set up!!
have you gotten to end of baja yet????
i will still be in mazatlan when ye get here....

i have 3 squareish, one rectangualar and 3 lil small semirigids....all but the semirigids are 2 amp rated. with addition of wind, i actually keep up a 2 bank system. i ditched one bank, now i will use my solar and wind AFTER refit. am sitting in mazatlan repairing cane damages and extended wear.

[sailor1924]

We spend all our time at anchor or on a mooring so I've been pretty focussed on creating an independent power source. We like modern conveniences and I run a couple of computers full time. We have a 12 volt refridge and I'll probably add a small 110 volt freezer if I can figure out where I want it. I'm adding a DIY water maker in the spring that will run off 110 volts as well.

On my ketch there's lots of space, though none completely unshaded. I've mounted 3 @ 100 watt panels all the way aft on my davits so they are mostly clear of the worst of the shading. I've mounted 8 @ 50 watt panels in two parallel banks on top of the trunk cabin and dodger. Two sets of three of the 50s are hinged so that they can be raised by 9" and/or swung outboard over the side decks port and starboard to avoid some of the shade issues and to allow access to the main boom. I have a single 100 watt panel mounted fore and aft just forward of the trunk cabin on a tilting mount. All of the banks of are wired in parallel to a single PWM charge controller.

I've had this set up for about 2 years. I installed the 50 watt panels 2.5 years ago and added the 100 watt panels last year. At this point I've always achieved a full charge by around noon. I have a 600 Amp hour house bank in 4 @ 6 volt golf cart flooded batteries and two dedicated 12 volt batteries for the generator and the windlass. I also have an isolated main engine start battery. The solar system is able to fully charge and equalize the batteries
The theoretical max output for this system is about 66 Amps at 12 volt. I've never seen the output reach more then 30 Amps that briefly in response to running a 1000 watt toaster oven through the inverter.

I've also got a Kiss wind generator that I mostly keep turned off since I haven't yet installed a dump load for it, and if I'm not attentive, it will boil the batteries . It's all a work in process.

I don't ever seem to have the right pictures for what I post but I'll attach a couple that might illustrate.

[Emmalina]

Damnmad Its 1200 watts but mostly in parallel so I always get enough ! Exactly hoy much I don't know but my fridge and freezer are always on and no problems !

[MichaelFournier]

I got here because i am looking at a 1976 Allied seawind ii 32 (ketch rig) and the first thing that came to mind was : “where am I going to mount solar panels for power while under way?” My first thought was like shown (a bit heavier mounts though) but also thought maybe put a wind generator on the mizzenmast or a Hydro-generator as well to change batteries while sailing lAnother thought I had was some some type of heavy duty combo of dingy davits/solar mounts but there are no davits standard or optional on the boat I’m looking at but that was one thought I had. I really like the seawind32 as a small blue water boat and the sail options a ketch offers is appealing but the location of the mizzenmast does make for a engineering challenge to a sailor looking to add solar power while sailing. (Shaded panels means little power generation) and the Mizzenmast will definitely shade the panels anywhere above the cockpit so the more standard method of a Bimini top mounted panels seems not a option at least if you want both a mizzen sail up and power generation at the same time.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by MichaelFournier

I got here because i am looking at a 1976 Allied seawind ii 32 (ketch rig) and the first thing that came to mind was : “where am I going to mount solar panels for power while under way?” My first thought was like shown (a bit heavier mounts though) but also thought maybe put a wind generator on the mizzenmast or a Hydro-generator as well to change batteries while sailing lAnother thought I had was some some type of heavy duty combo of dingy davits/solar mounts but there are no davits standard or optional on the boat I’m looking at but that was one thought I had. I really like the seawind32 as a small blue water boat and the sail options a ketch offers is appealing but the location of the mizzenmast does make for a engineering challenge to a sailor looking to add solar power while sailing. (Shaded panels means little power generation) and the Mizzenmast will definitely shade the panels anywhere above the cockpit so the more standard method of a Bimini top mounted panels seems not a option at least if you want both a mizzen sail up and power generation at the same time.

Best compromise I’ve found. Take a gander at the top of the dodger.

[akopac]

This has worked very well for us on our ketch. The davits are held in place horizontally by friction, but have a preventer line under way to keep them from swinging too far aft underway in case of a rogue wave or something. Like I said I don’t extend them underway except in mild conditions. That said panels are cheap (maybe hard to source some places if one broke). I made them bolt-on so the whole davit assembly could be removed for maintenance, or if I sold the boat and wanted to transfer them to another one. I made my own panel mounts from delrin rather than buy them and used some bolts myself. Even if somebody had a wrench it would probably be metric out of the states and at least they are not plastic wing nuts like the store bought ones. Durable and more or less theft inconvenient.

The friction cord angle adjustment has worked flawless for years and can be adjust far enough to face the panels upside down and forward. Be careful what kind of plastics you use as I have gotten some in MX called nilacera and it didn’t do well in the tropical sun.

Most of the time the boat faces North so all the panels are facing aft, but slightly out and angled about 45 or less. If I’m not lazy I’ll adjust them a couple times a day.

[Emmalina]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

That looks neat. You can increase the exposure by swinging the boom out of the way but at anchor you don't where the sun is going to come from.
How many watts would that be, and roughly what daily amp-hours would you expect at anchor?

Total is 1.2kw as for daily output I don't know but my 600Ah of lithium is full by about 11am everyday !