The
boat I am hoping to
purchase has neither a
bimini nor any sort of
solar panels. Since I am starting from scratch, I am wondering about thinking slightly outside the box in my approach.
The traditional thing would be a stainless gantry at the stern to carry
panels, and a completely separate
bimini with a
canvas cover. Nothing wrong with it, but it's going to add up to quite a bit of
work, and
money,by the time it's all done.
I've seen some people mount flexible
solar panels on top of their bimini, but it seems like the continual flexing of the
panels causes them to delaminate after a couple of years.
You can mount rigid panels on top, but then you need a separate support structure to hold them clear of the
canvas, otherwise they will chafe holes in it.
So why not use the panels themselves as the bimini?
What I'm thinking of is to have a smaller canvas section in the middle, where there is always going to be shade from the boom, and then to either side use rigid framed
solar panels.
Has anybody seen a design like this? The only real downside I can think of is that it will harder to create a waterproof canopy, but I don't think it is impossible.