I had almost exactly the same experience as David on our 1977 C&C 27 MKIII. I
got tired of setting up and putting away our solar panel, and one day someone
stepped on it and cracked it. A 40 watt panel fit perfectly on our sliding
hatch, and so I drilled holes through the hatch plastic and tapped them, and
screwed down as thin fiberglass backed panel.
What I did slightly different was to drill a hole in the track that the hatch
slides on, and run the wire through the track at the aft, then down along the
companionway. I was able to hide the cable and have it run down where the
batteries were, and mount a charge controller and combiner.
When the hatch was open, it left a small loop of wire that didn't seem to get
caught on anything, and I could close the hatch any time and the panel would be
exposed and charge.
I had 2 batteries, essentially a 31 as a house bank and a 24 as a starting
battery.
It was more than sufficient to run our autopilot, GPS, stereo, and minimal
instruments and top off the batteries during the week.
I went for 5 years at a time without replacing batteries.
And, we were on a mooring so we had no shore power charging capabilities.
Hope this helps,
Bruce Whitmore
(847) 404-5092 (mobile)
bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net
On Tuesday, June 25, 2019, 10:06:01 AM EDT, David Knecht via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
I had a 50W panel in an aluminum frame that I set on the sliding hatch when I
left the boat and plugged into an outlet I put near the engine controls.
Worked fine, but I got tired of carrying it and storing it below when I got to
the boat. This winter I replaced it with a thin flexible 50W panel mounted on
the sliding hatch with Velcro. It barely clears to slide under the traveller
frame, but has so far worked fine. I coil the wires and stick them in the rope
bags mounted on the front of the cockpit while sailing. Dave
S/V Aries1990 C&C 34+New London, CT
On Jun 25, 2019, at 8:32 AM, Della Barba, Joe via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
I have a 50 watt panel and a Morningstar controller. It does a decent job
keeping my battery charged. JoeCoquina C&C 35 MK IFrom: CnC-List
[mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Marek Dziedzic via CnC-List
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2019 8:24 AM
To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
Cc: Marek Dziedzic <dziedzi...@hotmail.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Stus-List Need Advice on Solar Panel project Pete, for
maintenance (topping up the batteries between sailings), you should be fine
with a small (50 W?) panel that you can put on the bimini (if you have one). I
have a flexible 25 W panel and it does a decent job (about 1 A of charging
current in normal circumstances; this could be improved with beefier wiring
(voltage drop) and possibly with better placing of the panel). I have a much
smaller battery bank (2 x 55 Ah), so my charging needs are smaller. We don’t
have any shore power in the Club, so all charging is either the motor or solar.
But of course, this all depends on how much power you use, so YMWV. The most
important part of the system is the controller. Don’t take any shortcuts there.
Gensun and Morningstar have very good options available. If you are looking
ahead, install a controller that can handle more power. But you would be hard
pressed to find enough space to install enough panel capacity to provide more
than 10-15 A. Marek1994 C270 Legato
Ottawa, ON_______________________________________________
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_______________________________________________
Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and
every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal
to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
_______________________________________________
Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and
every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal
to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
