I'm often in light wood boats myself & I often use water jugs forward of my position to trim the bow down. It is a cheap portable method & re-usable as you dump the water after your excursions. It keeps you from having to get your tiller extensions longer & longer.
Hey Simon, Can you or anyone share info about a small electric systems for my 15' dinghy. Looking to power a nav unit, a small Sound system for music and a mobile phone. Possibly lights but may just use battery operated running lights. I know it's easy but I'd like to get it right the first time.
Hi Kevin, It's hard to make a choice without knowing how this is to be used. Single day or multi day long trips? Seattle or Miami makes a big difference for solar. If you don't care about weight, oversize the battery a bit, get a 50 - 100W solar panel and you're done. If you want to build the optimal system then buy a cheap watt meter and measure how much power all of your electronics are using then estimate how many hours per day each one is used. This will tell you what size battery you need. There are published tables showing how much solar energy you can expect to get in different areas of the planet so you can use that to estimate you solar panel size.
I'm often in light wood boats myself & I often use water jugs forward of my position to trim the bow down. It is a cheap portable method & re-usable as you dump the water after your excursions. It keeps you from having to get your tiller extensions longer & longer.
I'm surprised at how it runs very nice 👍👍🇺🇸
Very nice!
I have a Grumman Sport Boat up here in Tennessee. I’m tempted to get one of those panels and see what it can do with the MinnKota 50 I have.
A cheap watt meter will tell you how much power your MinnKota is using. You can use those numbers to size the solar panels.
Hey Simon,
Can you or anyone share info about a small electric systems for my 15' dinghy. Looking to power a nav unit, a small Sound system for music and a mobile phone. Possibly lights but may just use battery operated running lights. I know it's easy but I'd like to get it right the first time.
Found this vid through duckworks.
Hi Kevin, It's hard to make a choice without knowing how this is to be used. Single day or multi day long trips? Seattle or Miami makes a big difference for solar. If you don't care about weight, oversize the battery a bit, get a 50 - 100W solar panel and you're done. If you want to build the optimal system then buy a cheap watt meter and measure how much power all of your electronics are using then estimate how many hours per day each one is used. This will tell you what size battery you need. There are published tables showing how much solar energy you can expect to get in different areas of the planet so you can use that to estimate you solar panel size.