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Solar arch

BJoslin

Member
Good day all!
looking for design ideas on a solar arch. I've searched the forum and found a few but I suspect many more of you out there may have one but do not have any pictures of it posted here. If you wouldn't mind, could you please post a pic here. I would love to see what fellow Morgan owners have done to add solar to their boats.

Barry
 
I don't have an arch, but am very happy with solar panels mounted on my lifelines. The advantage is that with an arch, if the mainsail shades it (and it will) you loose everything because they are all in one place. But with solar panels on the lifelines, I am pretty much guaranteed to always have half of them working.

I will probably add panels to my bimini at some point, but will also keep the ones on my lifelines.
 
Barry
Here is a photo of Dana with 225 watts of solar mounted on the bimini frame. The canvas of the bimini can be removed with the panels staying up.

Jim
 

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Warren. I have my panels above the aft deck. Not on a fancy arch, buy spanned between two stainless poles. It doesn't look as bad as it sounds, actually. But I might like to add more. What fittings do you use to attach the panels to the lifelines? Do they fold out and in? If folded in, don't they get in the way of swinging a decent sized winch handle? Mine are 12" long. (I am not a particularly strong guy, despite using a weight room regularly. After a bunch of single-handed short tacking last year, I may by an E-Wincher.)
 
Terry

A couple of years ago we purchased a Winch Rite 12V electric winch handle. It is a very powerful tool. Especially for raising the main and bringing the dinghy up in the davits. The unit we have has been working fine, but I recommended it to a friend whose unit immediately failed. There are a number of winch machines on the market to choose from. What we found with using the machine is that it has extended our ability to handle the loads on the boat that, prior to it, would have had us looking to sell the boat.

Jim
 
Warren,
I’m also interested in how you have them mounted in the lifelines. I’ve seen folks with them mounted on the sides but always to solid rails.
Jim,
Thank you for the picture. I may still may end up mounting some on my bimini instead of doing an arch. It’s not the greatest bimini set up so it would need a good bit of modification. Still just looking for ideas for now.
 
Don't laugh. I used zip ties. Large ties about 3/8" wide. I ran the lifeline through pex tubing for a bit cleaner install. I prop them up with wood dowels. Folded down they are outside the life lines, so not really in the way. I've seen boats that replace the top lifeline with ss tube for more secure mounting, but after 20,000 miles i think I've proven zip ties are secure enough.
 
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