Snap back to Annapolis!
- Katie Burgess
- Sep 9, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 30, 2025
So we're a month away from this year's Annapolis Sailboat Show and we are preparing our booth setup, dusting off our name badges and deciding what merch to give away! It's certainly an exciting time ahead and we look forward to what each day of the show will bring: lots of great questions, hopefully some good sunshine and a chance to meet customers old and new.
For those who don't know, we first launched Sun Powered Yachts at the Annapolis show back in 2018. It was only maybe 6 months earlier that we had chartered a sailboat in Tahiti and found ourselves in these beautiful, sunny anchorages having to run our noisy, dirty engine 4 hours a day to keep up with the fridge, lights and fans! OK so maybe the charter boat didn't have the best alternator aboard, and the battery bank was likely several years old, but we knew there had to be a better way and solar was key.
We pulled from Katie's decade long experience having helped people go solar on their homes in Hawaii and Lyall's experience sailing and with the SunPower/Maxeon solar panels really channeled our energy into creating a business to help boat owners go solar aboard.
In our booth we're here to chat solar & sailing and answer any questions boat owners might have about going solar. Firstly, we're here to help highlight the advantages of having solar aboard (quiet, clean, tax credits etc) but also demonstrate the SunPower/Maxeon advantage over the competition (high efficiency, smaller footprint, quality cells)
Come chat solar & sailing with us - O17 & O18
We love #boothlife for the mad four days it is: meeting lots of boaters, getting to know our booth neighbors really well (Powerflow Marine & North Shore Canvas) and also getting a good feel for how solar sits in the marine market. Walking the docks of any marina I would say that there are solar panels on the majority of boats. We're seeing more power boats add solar, cruising catamarans adding large solar arrays and smaller boats adding a panel to keep their battery happy when on a mooring for the summer - why not leave the fridge on and keep the drinks cold!
In our booth this year we will have the Maxeon Air 330W flexible solar panel (it's a biggie!), Maxeon 415W-R fixed frame solar panel and the smaller SunPower 50W and 100W flexible solar panels.
These panels are all built with the same solar cells, more cells = more wattage! We'll have some cell breakage kits to demonstrate how the solid copper backing gives the cells strength so even if they were to crack they can continue to produce power.
We'll also have some of the other key components required to get your system up and running: Victron MPPT controller, circuit breaker, PV wires, y-branch connectors etc Look over our wiring sketches to get an idea of how these components come together.
A big change is coming to the Federal Tax Credits which have been a huge advantage for many boat owners until now. Sadly with the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill the 30% Federal Tax Credits are being axed on December 31st, 2025 - 10 years early!! We have had many customers take advantage of this and hope many more can before the end of this year. Don't forget it's on the total system cost and can include panels, wiring, controllers, labor and now batteries more easily too.
With 30% Federal Tax Credits axed December 31st, 2025 there's no better time to install solar power aboard
We look forward to taking part in many more boatshows in the coming years and continuing to inspire & inform boat owners on the benefits of going solar. Let us know any questions you might have, we're available by phone +1 808 825 2670 or email info@sunpoweredyachts.com
