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

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Check out our FREE Nav Rules Course for Sailboats here - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/navigation-rules When two sailboats on the same tack meet, the most leeward boat is the stand-on boat. The other must give way. In this video the sailboats nearly collide but the windward boat turns to sail in behind the leeward boat. This sailing video should also be used by sailing schools in their learn to sail seminar to teach rules of the nautical road. NauticEd developed this video for the FREE Rules of the Nautical Road online sailing course at http://www.nauticed.org/courses Course List FREE Navigation Rules Online Sailing Course (3hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/navigation-rules Skipper Large Sailboat | Online Sailing Course (20hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/skipper Maneuvering Under Power and Docking (4hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/maneuvering-under-power Advanced Sail Trim (4hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/sail-trim Anchoring a Sailboat (4hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/anchoring-a-sailboat Coastal Navigation (10hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/coastal-navigation Catamaran Sailing Confidence (3hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/catamaran-sailing-confidence Electronic Navigation (5hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/sailing-courses/view/electronic-navigation Bareboat Charter Master Course Bundle (53hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/bundle/view/bareboatcharter Introduction to Sailing Course Bundle (9hr) - https://www.nauticed.org/bundle/view/intro-to-sailing #sailingschool #sailing #navigation

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Rent a Boat in Santorini and Explore the Magnificent Scene. Book your Private Boat Tour.

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British singer-songwriter Sting entertained an exclusive gathering for the fourth successive year of the Private Preview by Ferretti Group, which is hosted annually by Yacht Club de Monaco ahead of the Cannes Yachting Festival... https://goo.gl/Uv6jhp Video courtesy of Ferretti Group

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