Generation
We have been fitting new carbon fibre stanchions with carbon fibre top rails where we are putting solar panels (4 x 175watt). Here we build prototype adjustable supports so that the panels can be dropped for docking, tilted to follow the sun or to avoid waves when heeling. Shout out
Environmental
Today I have the prototype adjustable supports for the first side solar panel working. Goes from vertical (folded away) to above horizontal. Lots more to do before a finished solution but this feels like real progress. Video out tomorrow (Saturday) morning all about this.
Generation
We are making progress despite the weather, which is typical for a North Wales summer in an era of climate change (ie wetter, windier and warmer just as predicted for decades). We now have all 3 of the guardlines fitted to the forward port side. I'm going to
Electric
We are really excited with the progress on our stanchions and what we have learnt means we have redesigned our aft solar "arch" yet again (I've lost count, this might be the 10,000th version). Stanchions and Gates This was our first stanchion base. The carbon
Cooking
Today we took the big step of drilling a hole through our new thrust bulkhead for the propeller shaft. Eventually, this hole will be significantly larger as the propeller shaft comes through it and ends inside the Aquadrive flexible coupling which gets bolted onto the forward side. At the moment
Generation
How about this solar powered achievement! Electric Boat Completes All-Solar Generated Cruise to Alaska that is really impressive. So much looking forward to seeing what we can achieve once we get to the solar part of our refit.
Generation
On Saturday we managed a few jobs that are about as low as we can get. Water getting low in the wrong places During the heavy rain on Friday we discovered a key source of the water in the (very deep) bilge at the aft end of the keel. I&
Electric
This answers our pondering House Battery Bank: Should we go 48 volt So we managed to get these two items from the clearance section at Energy Solutions. The new MultiPlus II (looks like a decent upgrade from the original MultiPlus). Sized with a 48 volt, 5000 Watt inverter and a
Appliances
In Our Scandinavian challenges part 1 I covered the time/permission complications of getting to spend time in the fantastically beautiful (and remote) parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic given the impact of Brexit. I ended with "In part 2 I’ll look at the other key challenges these
Generation
From the beginning we have been planning Solar panels fitted to the guardrails. We have seen lots of boats with Solar Panels attached to the guardrails. However, as we are wanting to have zero fossil fuels we need more solar than most. We have gone for Victron 175 watt panels
Appliances
While we wrote Going 100% electric: the “house” after Going 100% electric: the Motor we had in fact made most of the decisions around the house electrical system before we made the decision that we would go straight to an electric motor instead of the diesel. Now we are thinking
Appliances
Sadly, we can't do much but plan at the moment. However, that does at least give us the opportunity to improve those plans. In More on sustainability, I included a bit about Jimmy Cornell needing to abandon his attempt to sail around the world with zero carbon emissions.