Hurry Up and Wait

Every Sunday afternoon George and I sit down and review our boat projects list. We talk about each project, what steps we need to take, how much progress we have made what we need to do next. At this point we are at a "hurry up and wait" stage on most of the projects. Breeze On is covered with shrink wrap at the moment and we need to wait until the shrink wrap comes off before we can start making measurements and finalizing decisions.

SOLAR PANELS

We have purchased most of the supplies for the solar panels including: four Renogy 100 watt semi flexible panels, all of the cables, connectors, and two Blue Sky controllers.

 

George chose the Blue Sky controllers over the Renogy brand because the Blue Sky controllers are "smart" and therefore maximize the amperage going into the batteries. They also have a display which tells us the battery voltage, solar panel output and charge input to the batteries.

 

We have decided to attach the panels to the bimini with Velcro using a method described in the blogs, Sailing Journey. Compass Marine How To, and Bruce Schwab Energy Systems. They each fashioned a "lapel" which allowed the panels to be attached with Velcro on both the top and bottom of the panels. I plan to make the lapels myself and did a test run using sample pieces of Sunbrella and Velcro.

 

 

My machine was able to handle sewing through all of the layers of Sunbrella. I also wanted to see if I would be able to get our large bimini through the arm of the sewing machine. It was quite an upper body workout but I did it.

 

I believe I will be able to do the sewing myself. If not, we will hire a canvas shop to attach the lapels to the bimini.

We tried laying two of the four panels on half of the bimini to determine where and how we wanted them attached.

 

We decided we should wait until Breeze On is uncovered and the bimini is set up, maybe later this week. We will lay the panels out on the bimini and mark where they should be placed. We have selected a spot near the battery bank for the controllers already. Then we will have the challenge of snaking the wires from the panels, into the boat and to the controllers!

 

The other projects that are on hold include a longer anchor chain, whisker pole for the jib and flag halyards.

 

 

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