low-amp system for small sailboat

Re: low-amp system for small sailboat

niel wrote: »

bill,
wow i almost forgot about that big race and believe it or not i still have much info on the updates as they were sent out.
here's a link that i was sent with the pics of the boat (foolishmuse):
http://community.webshots.com/album/553262832dhkqhJ
i seem to recall some pics of the pvs that hung off the back of the boat, but i'm not seeing them at this point.

Yes, that's Andy on Foolish Muse. Here's a pic of his solar array;


...you've got it right, this is the Singlehanded TransPac, put on by the Singlehanded Sailing Society of San Francisco Bay.

http://www.sfbaysss.org

Our forum

http://www.sfbaysss.net

Andy did have quite a bit of generating capacity on the back end of the boat, I don't remember him having issues with running out, and I know the people who delivered his boat back to Seattle. They bought a Honda generator for the trip back and never used it, but then there were two people on the boat so they probably hand-steered 12 hours a day or more.

I know of a Moore 24 that did the race with about 200 amps of solar generating power and had no issues and he had a beefy autopilot. Another Moore 24 has done it with about 160 amps of generating ooomph. I know of a J-92 (30-footer) that did the race two two 40 watt panels and had to run his engine 3x for about 4 hours a pop.

I'm gonna look up all your recommendations for generators, though. I'd sure like to see more than 15 amps coming out of the generator. Thats' what my current mini-gen-set pushes out, though.

Re: low-amp system for small sailboat

BB. wrote: »

One good Solar powered Sailboat thread here...

Another sailboat thread...

-Bill

PS: You might want to look at a Honda eu1000i or eu2000i and a good battery charger--Both are pretty fuel efficient and will charge your batteries much faster than the 15 amp DC generator (what is the estimated fuel flow for that?).

The first link is to somebody that actually raced the same race that you are probably entering--and his system, in the end, did not provide near enough solar only power for their boat (lots of cloudy weather at times).

It is this race (Singlehanded Sailing Society)?

Oh, that's funny..... I know born2sail very well, he and his girlfriend were the ones who doublehanded the boat back from Hawaii. It's good to know they were looking for information here, as well.

That year (2006) was the slowest race on record..

Honda eu1000i, huh? It's DC output is only 8.3 amps, but I suppose it would drive a 20 amp portable charger, eh?

Re: low-amp system for small sailboat

About the wind generators... The race is usually about 16 days or so. It took me 16, almost 17 days in 1996. The 2006 race was deadly, lots of boats didn't get in until days 19 and 20!

My understanding is that most wind generators don't kick up much juice until the windspeed hits about 12 mph, or so. Over 25 mph, they howl and generate scads of electrons.

Along the California Coast (the first three-four days) we're usually broad reaching (meaning sailing partway between perpendicular to the wind direction, and dead downwind). So during those days when it's often pretty windy, a wind generator will push out some significant amps. However after that, the prevailing wind direction goes more and more aft. This means that the boat is sailing in the same direction that the wind is blowing. If my boat is doing 10 knots downwind, and with a spinnaker up it certainly can maintain that speed for a long time, then it would have to blow over 22 knots to get those required 12 knots of breeze to get the wind generator to get going. To really pay off, it's going to have to blow more like 27 knots or more, but at that point my boat is going at 14 knots...so...uh... you see the dminshing returns, here? Gentlemen and ladies, I really hope it doesn't blow 30-35 knots all the way to Hawaii. I *really* don't want to work that hard! past results from guys who've used wind generators on this race haven't been all that great, though whoooiiieee do they crank out amps during the squalls that breeze in over Hanalei Bay.

Wind generators work great going upwind, and in the anchorage. They're not so good on fast boats going primarily downwind, that's one reason (among others) why you don't see them on the Open 60's and so on.

Re: low-amp system for small sailboat

Hi, Long time, no see gang, but I thought I'd check in and let you know how it went.

OK, my solar set up: Panels: two new Kyocera 40 watt panels mounted on the stern rail, with fittings so I could tilt them. Truth is, I left them flat most of the time. ..and two used solarex 30 watt panels. One solarex was mounted over the companionway where it got sun about half as much of the time as the 40-watters, and was shaded by the boom more than I'd wished. The four panel wasn't mounted at all. I had it on a long cord and just put it in the cockpit during the day, in the sun and tied it to a cleat with a small cord so it wouldn't crash around.

Regulator: Morningstar Dual Battery Charge Controller 25 Amp (though my array only put out, at most about 9 amps).

Batteries: two, 90 amp-hour wet cell, deep cycle marine batteries.

Weather conditions: Gray, gray, gray to the point where I actually commented in disgust one night on the radio..."This is the sailing vessel, Ankle Biter, checking in with the Singlehanded Sailing Society's singlehanded race to NORWAY..."

Honestly, it was depressing during the first half of the race, it was much more overcast than the normal year. We didn't see regular sun until about day ten, and it was only really sunny all day long from days 13 - 17 (for me). When we did get sun, at least both of the 40-watt panels and one 30-watt were in full sun for 5-6 hours a day and partial sun or sun with always moving shadows on the panel...or sun at an oblique angle, for 2-3 hours more than that..

Draw:

autopilot: about 1 amp draw. I didn't use the autopilot for the first six days, but rather relied on my windvane steering system. When the windvane exploded, I then used the autopilot from 18-24 hours a day.

running lights: I have replaced the usual incandescent lights with LED's. This is a MASSIVE savings, as each incandescent bulb burns up about an amp, and there's two on the boat (at least 20 amp draw per day) whereas the LED's burn up about 0.1 amp.

GPS: I had handhelds that used AA batteries, but i ran the hard-wired GPS all the time, often 18 hours a day. It draws 4 watts max at 13.8 v, so I figure roughly 0.3 amps

AIS: this is a vessel identification system. Basically it's a VHF radio receiver...it doesn't broadcast at all. Draw is about 0.1 amp.

VHF radio...I barely used it at all.

SSB (HF) radio: I checked in regularly twice a day, which took about 2 minutes of broadcast time and as much as an hour of listening time. If I was stressing over low batteries I'd listen to the whole check in and write down everybody's position, but not talk at all besides relaying my position. If everything was juiced up pretty good and the batteries were over 12.6 or 12.7 volts I might broadcast and chat for 5-8 minutes of transmit time.

Laptop and satellite phone: I don't know the draw on the phone but I had to recharge it several times during the trip. I used the phone to send/get e-mail and weather files. I'd hook up a portable 400watt inverter to one of the batteries and charge for about an hour. This would drop that battery from 1.6 -12.7 volts down to below 12. The same went for the laptop. I never ran the laptop directly from the inverter, I would always run it from the battery, and then plug it in to charge it.