My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

I have had these flexible solar panels since before I got the boat. By the way, I think I have a name for her now. I will announce it one I run it be a few more people to see what they think. Back to the solar panels. I have 2 small 5 watters and a 20 watter. They are great. Portable, daisy chainable and has built in charge connector. They are the only method I have of charging up the 2 batteries in the boat. Although I haven’t sail the boat enough to even put the batteries to the test so as far as I know, they are just keeping them topped off…

I have them connected through a wire coming out the starboar side lazarette and into a cigarette lighter adaptor. I keep the main battery switch on both batteries and the panel switch to on only on the lighter plug. Each time during the day I go to the boat I find that there is always condensation beneath the chargers as they sit on each sides of the cockpit. I didn’t mind too much since its just water. But today I noticed that there is actually discoloration caused by the panels being on top of the seating areas. I have since relocated them to on top of the boom. It is lashed down with bungee cords so it does not get blown away but I do worried about people seeing them and ripping them off. I don’t know why the discoloration occurs but it is fairly minor and once I paint the topside it will be gone.

Here is a photo of what one of the panels look like. I think I may have already posted a photo in the past but it doesn’t hurt to do it again.