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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Day 2 of the Arctique Race

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You're not only watching Charlie Dalin win the Vendée Globe, but break the race record by NINE days. Charlie Dalin had been there but never done that. In the 2020-2021 edition of the Vendee Globe race, he had been first up this channel. But he officially finished second after Yannick Bestaven was awarded time credit for coming to another sailor’s aid and achieved a well-deserved victory. Today it is Charlie’s day. There is nothing anywhere in sailing like the day the first finisher crosses the line in Les Sables d’Olonne. Harken was there, At The Front…where we must be. There will be time for analysis of the race and full examination of the Harken equipment aboard each boat after a lap of the planet. But for today, it’s just Bravo Charlie!!! #vendéeglobe #AtTheFront

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Day 47 solo sailing — after one of the roughest storms of my journey, the ocean went completely still and I stumbled onto this uninhabited island. No plan. No map. Just the wind and the water. This is the moment I knew I made the right decision. ⛵ Follow the full journey: → New videos every week 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss Day 48 --- CHAPTERS: 00:00 After the storm 00:08 The island appears 00:24 This is peace 00:35 Would you do this? #SailingLife #SoloSailing #OceanLife #Sailboat #BluewaterCruising #SailingVlog #OffGrid #Adventure

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