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Help with picking out a solar setup for my boat

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  • #16
    Poor fellow asks for help and knows exactly what he wants to be told - do otherwise like telling the truth and he gets his knickers in a knot.

    Bye buddy - we are better without you.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

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    • #17
      Originally posted by russ View Post
      Poor fellow asks for help and knows exactly what he wants to be told - do otherwise like telling the truth and he gets his knickers in a knot.

      Bye buddy - we are better without you.
      It's fun to meet a full-time liveaboard cruising sailor. But there's things in the "plans" that I question if you never plan on getting a full-service slip - like fresh water. You can only carry so much onboard a 27 foot boat. That usually means a watermaker, and they take a LOT of power for electric ones. The other option is an engine-driven watermaker, and we got both on our boat because the membrane is plugged in one or the other 90% of the time.

      You can use saltwater for showers and even cooking. If you don't mind feeling sticky all the time and don't mind your food all tasting salty. It gets old after awhile and then you look at ways to get more fresh water.

      I didn't see other important items mentioned like VHF and SSB marine radio. They are your primary sources of information and safety at sea, and information on anchorage space when coming into a harbor or anchorage.

      I noticed the mention of if you're going to run the engine or install a generator, might as well buy a motor yacht instead. Experience will teach you that a sailboat IS a motor yacht with sails on it. The sails don't work all the time. And when you're living aboard 24/7/365 there's certain things you need and one of those is electrical power, and solar panels cannot provide it on a sailing yacht.

      The alarms go off because I have met probably 8 or 10 people that had this same "dream" of buying a small sailboat, living onboard, sailing on the cheap and never go into slips or marinas, and go coastal cruising to the Caribbean. One of them I know had one of those anchors that "hold no matter what" and ended up on the rocks by South Padre Island, and then the Coast Guard had to rescue the guy and he didn't even have insurance on the boat and he abandoned it. Almost an IDENTICAL story to what I just read in this thread, except it had a very bad ending. These so-called "coastal fair weather cruisers" have the absolute worst of it when caught in weather and that's usually when they get in trouble when they get into the surf. If I'm going to be sailing in weather I want at least 2,000 feet of ocean under me and no land in sight where there's rocks.

      Can this all be done on a Cal 27 that's single-handed? Absolutely. But not with the setup that was described.

      To answer the original question, 12 AWG wire from each solar panel to your controller is just fine. But don't ground your solar array or controller(s) to your boat's bonding system. I assume the mount being talked about was to put solar panels on the aft rails around the cockpit and those just happen to be tied to your boat's bonding system. If you put those solar panels on there without properly grounding them you'd better not drop anchor in any harbor or anchorage where there's other boats or you'll be causing electrolysis problems on not only your boat but everybody around you. You can tell at a glance who's sailing the cobbled together "rat yachts" and those are the ones to stay away from in a marina or anchorage lest they literally eat your rudder post right off.
      off-grid in Northern Wisconsin for 14 years

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      • #18
        Fresh water and oxygen is easy to make on a sub. More than you can use with an endless supply of energy and salt water. Life on a sub suks with 16 hour days, no privacy, no women, but you have all the food, hot showers, and a nice warm clean beds you could possible want. Just don't ask where you are or what time it is. That is a secret.
        MSEE, PE

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        • #19
          In addition to the information to be found here, you may also want to see if there are any other marine-specific issues that have been brought up by this community:

          http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/

          The problem is that it makes me want to actually go marine!

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          • #20
            Originally posted by PNjunction View Post
            In addition to the information to be found here, you may also want to see if there are any other marine-specific issues that have been brought up by this community:

            http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/

            The problem is that it makes me want to actually go marine!
            It's a known phenomenon among cruisers that people who slip on shore power have less problems with their anodes and electrolysis corrosion than people who moor on mooring balls or drop anchor in anchorages and use onboard inverter and/or generator power. It is related to grounding because the transfer system in a boat transfers the onboard (ungrounded) neutral to a shore-based grounded neutral system, which in turn stops stray voltage problems and differences in potential between metal parts on your boat. Ocean cruisers live their lives in one of the greatest electrolytes known - salt water.
            off-grid in Northern Wisconsin for 14 years

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