1) Understanding your energy needs is essential to determine how much solar you need. Start by making an "energy budget". List all your consumers and their daily usage. For example, if your LED lights use 1W per bulb and you have eight bulbs on for 5 hours a day, that would be 8 Watts for 5 hours or (8x5) 40 Wh (Watt hours). I like to use kWh to keep things consistent. 40 Wh = 0.040 kWh. It's a good idea to list what you're using while at anchor and another list of what you're using while underway (for instance, you don't use your autopilot at anchor). Remember to list everything: fridge, freezer, watermaker, autopilot, nav lights, chart plotters, etc. For example, here aboard Athena, with an electric galley, fridge, freezer, watermaker, two computers, etc, we use an average of 5.5 kWh per day. 2) To give you a quick estimate, use https://globalsolaratlas.info/ to find "Global horizontal irradiation" per day for your location. Take your daily energy consumption from step 1 and divide that by the number of solar hours. In the case of Athena, located in the Caribbean, that would be 5.5kWh per day / 5 sun hours = 1.1 kW solar array. Keep in mind that this is a theoretical number that does not take into account the shading or degradation of the panels over time. Let's add 30%. 1.1 x 1.3 = 1.43 kW. You can now divide that number by the panel's Nominal Power output. In the case of Athena, our panels are 400W SunPower panels. 1430W / 400W = 3.6 panels needed to cover our 5.5 kWh per day consumption. 3) Understand that the amount of solar you can install on a small sailboat is limited by the size of the boat and heavily influenced by shading and, of course, the boat's location. The size of the panels might also be defined by the height of your stanchions or the size of an existing solar arch. Figure out where you're able and willing to install panels. That will dictate the size and number of panels. 4) Use Victron Energy's MPPT Calculator to calculate what MPPT is ideally sized for your solar panels and expected output based on location. Based on our experience in the Caribbean, the estimate provided by the guide is reasonable. https://www.victronenergy.com/mppt-calculator. Remember that it's best practice to avoid combining panels with different specs on the same MPPT. #sailboat #sailboatproject #boatwork #saillife #liveaboard #liveaboardlife #saltlife #sailing #sailingadventure #travel ingcouple #livingonaboat #solar #sailboatsolar

0

0

0

18,952

We are a New Sailing Couple Preparing To Install Windlass! This is one short video of several that show part of the process. In this video, Chris is dry-fitting the Windlass, which is fitting before any sealant supplies. He cut two large holes--(a 4" and a 3"), for the chain and the windlass. He also drilled 3/8" mounting holes. Our deck was 5" thick--which is exceptionally THICK! He treated the holes with epoxy to prevent water intrusion. If you dig our journey as a new sailing couple, learning to sail, buying a Sceptre 41, getting ready to sail and launching, we would love you to follow along: Join us on our website at: https://gypseaexplorer.com/ Or on our Instagram Channel: https://www.instagram.com/writerjacks/ Or for another windlass installation video, click here: https://youtube.com/shorts/Sx7oWQS4Keo

0

0

0

504

0

0

0

0

1,237

One of my new favourite knots is the Zeppelin Bend, for tying 2 ropes together. It's a very strong knot from the late 18th century that was used to secure Zeppelin airships full of hydrogen or helium to the ground. This video will quickly show you how to tie one. .... This knot can cope with a huge strain and it won't jam under load, meaning you can untie it in an emergency: it's the Mother of all knots. ... Zeppelins were up to 3 times longer than a 747. That's quite a force for a knot. Sure, you can just use a Sheet Bend for the same purpose, but why ask Mr Bean for help when you know Schwarzenegger? Anyway, this knot has a great back story and a cool name: the Zepper!

0

0

0

2,772