We were pleased to help Paul & Anne Marie go solar with SunPower aboard their Amel Super Maramu 'Rita Kathryn'. As with all of our customers it's great to help with sizing a system, which SunPower flexible solar panels will work and to which MPPT charge controller. It's even better when we see photos of the end result and hear about how much solar power is being produced.
Paul went one step further and sent us a link to his blog that he had written about the whole install and we wanted to share that on our website. I'll just add a few snippets here but for the full blog post head to their website www.ritakathryn.com
One Bad Apple... by Paul, Feb 29th, 2020
"We have been meaning to get some solar power on the RK for some time now. When we were in Ft. Lauderdale in February of 2019, we stopped into a marine solar establishment that was recommended to us by our friends Mark and Cindy on S/V Cream Puff. We were interested in semi-flexible panels that can be placed on our canvas bimini top..."
"...We were making major changes to the existing design – raising the height, adding clear panels forward for better visibility, enclosing the entire cockpit for protection from the elements, adding flexible solar panels, etc. They took on the project in small logical steps. They made sure the frame was modified properly first, then they patterned the main section, installed it, and made sure it was 100% right before patterning the next section...
"...While this work was going on, I was busy getting the electrical connections ready for the solar panels. We ended up getting them from Sun Powered Yachts out of Hawaii. The guys we met in Ft. Lauderdale last year were less helpful this year when I reached out to them...Lyall at SPY was very pleasant on the phone and he took the time to answer ALL my questions. He is also the owner and the operation is much smaller than the unnamed dealer in Ft. Lauderdale. His prices were comparable and I felt like he would be there for me after the sale, which he was. I couldn’t recommend him more highly."
"After all this effort, it was a great feeling when I plugged everything in and it all worked! Having the solar panels has definitely reduced the amount of time we need to run the generator and they also make it possible to bring the batteries up to a full charge on a more regular basis. Without them, this is really only possible if you run the generator for a very long time, take a 5 or 6 hour trip motoring or motor sailing, or plug into shore power. As the batteries will last longer the more often you can bring them back to full charge, in the long run, the investment into this project will pay for it self in short order"
The finished install | 4x170W SunPower E-flex solar panels
Have you recently installed your SunPower E-flex solar panels? Like to share your blog post or photos with us?
Drop us an email with your install story, We can add you to our install gallery or post a link to your blog in our news feed thank you Katie & Lyall