As much as we love our canoe-stern, it has its drawbacks – like a place to mount solar panels. A lot of people add a big arch to the back of the cockpit to mount solar panels, dinghy davits, and other things. We considered adding an arch but opted not to mostly due to cost, space constraints, and the cluttered look it creates. Instead, we replaced the aft upper and lower lifelines with 7/8″ stainless steel tubing. This gave us a solid place to mount the panels and we could design it so they folded down when not in use.
For the tubing brackets, we used bimini fittings from Bosun Supplies. They have a great selection of all kinds of stainless boat-related hardware. The brackets and arm we used allow the panels to slide from a vertical position to past a horizontal position. This way we have more options for tipping the panels toward the sun. The bracket arm had to be ground down a little with a Dremel tool so it would articulate smoothly.
Solar Panels
Solar panels have gotten ridiculously inexpensive in the past several years. We bought Newpowa 175 Watt solar panels on Amazon. We picked these because they were the right size and fit the area we had available. If space had allowed we would have gotten something bigger. The panel frames are heavy-duty anodized aluminum so they are very rigid. The dimensions are approximately 58″×26″×1.5″ and they weigh 26 pounds each. They are made of high transparent, low-iron, tempered glass. According to their website, they are rugged, designed to withstand high wind pressure, hail and snow load. I seriously hope we never have to test the snow load.
Charge Controller
The interface between the batteries and the solar panel is a Victron MPPT 100 volt 30 amp charge controller. MPPT means Maximum Power Point Tracking. A solar charger gathers energy from the solar panels and drives it intelligently into the batteries to achieve full charge in the shortest possible time. Supposedly this maintains battery health, extending their life.
According to the Victron website “by constantly monitoring the voltage and current output of your solar panels, MPPT technology ensures that every drop of available power is rinsed out of your panels, and harvested for storage.”
Every drop is rinsed and harvested? It’s strange wording, but you get the gist. More info about the MPPT controller can be found here: Datasheet-BlueSolar-and-SmartSolar-charge-controller-overview-EN
