Thank you Annapolis boatshow
- Lyall Burgess
- Oct 15
- 3 min read
We love #boothlife for the busy 4 days of the boatshow
What a cracking Annapolis boatshow 2025, we enjoy being in the outside booths up in the O tents close to the Waterfront Hotel as it's a great to show off the panels in the sun and be outside. We were very lucky with the weather and it really only turned a little chilly and rainy late on Sunday afternoon. I think the forecast motivated more people to attend on Thursday & Friday as they were very busy days.
It's a fun time for us to connect with previous customers and find out about their sailing adventures and how solar has helped them enjoy cruising more remote locations. We get to chat with friends in the industry, installers, boat builders and get the scoop on new products and services. And we get to answer a lot of questions about solar and how it works aboard, some of the popular topics for discussion included:
Are these panels shade tolerant?
How many diodes do they have?
Can I walk on these?
If I add more panels will I need a new controller?
What will this 100W panel power?
How can I install these on my bimini?
Am I too late for the Federal Tax Credits?
So I have 3,000W of solar aboard and I need just a little bit more!!
Wanting even more solar is for sure something we didn't hear back in 2018 when we first launched. Back then I can honestly remember a few people almost laughing at us saying "why do I need solar panels on my boat?" Fast forward 7 years and it's almost an addiction: "How do I get more solar panels?!" "Do you have the good stuff?!" "I have 3000W of solar already, but it would be nice to have just a little bit more!"
Certainly, our mantra has always been more solar is better (same for batteries) and I don't think we've ever had a customer say you sold me too much solar. We're not saying you need to take it to the extreme and have a small helipad hanging off the stern or completely cover your boat in flex panels like this guy.
The good thing with solar is that it's modular, you can always add more solar panels with another MPPT controller at a later date if you find what you have already installed is not keeping up.
Another option is to keep a few extra flex panels flat under a bunk (or we keep ours behind the head door) and then bring them out on deck when needed. An extra 200W of solar bungeed on deck temporarily whilst on anchor for our 730W permanent install on the bimini is a 27% increase in solar - pretty good gains!
Finding time to step out of our booth we got to poke our nose in the seminar tent, step aboard the Vision Yachts catamarans which have Maxeon 470W solar panels installed. We chatted with World Cruising Club and attended their happy hour on Friday night, nice to catch up with Andy & Mia from 59 North, the WRI guys, Hydrovane and enjoy the Young Cruisers/YouTube party.
Vision Yachts, from South Africa, install up to 8x470W Maxeon panels aboard
This year we were able to stay aboard our own boat 'Blake', Dufour 382 (2016), that we had recently moved from Little Creek, VA to Bert Jabin Yacht Yard, Annapolis. After a busy day at the show it was nice to take a short Uber ride, or water taxi, and feel quite at home aboard. After hauling out right after the boatshow we managed to spot quite a few boats on the hard with SunPower or Maxeon solar panels installed.
Plenty of SunPower/Maxeon panels spotted in the Bert Jabin yard
Thank you again to everyone who stopped by our booth to talk story & ask questions about solar, grab an orange and relax in our chairs. Still have some questions or want to share your install photo with us we're available on email info@sunpoweredyachts.com
