I knew that there is no way solar would keep up with my cruising loads.
Cruising in Maine, where the wind usually doesn't come up unitl noon,
usually involves enough motoring to keep the batteries charged. It's the
periods when we're not cruising and just daysailing that I'm concerned
about.

I won't be running the anchor light on the mooring and I just bought one of
the new low draw LED units anyway. My old one was a combination bow/mast
light with two bulbs and was a real hog but it was the only one I could get
when I found that the original was toast the day before the mast was to go
up. The only daysailing draw will be the GPS, radio which I seldom
transmit on (for which I have been already soundly berated on this group),
instruments, and a bit of fresh water pumping.

I also don't expect to keep up entirely with the loads. It's more a matter
of balancing the cost of a modest solar rig against the extension of battery
life and capacity. Maybe just buying new batteries every 2 - 3 years makes
more sense. I get my AGM's cheap enough from a non-marine source that a set
every year would just be a blip in the cost of boat ownership.

Wind is the way to go but location and foundation support are an issue on my
boat.

I'd still like to know if there is a panel that you think makes sense for
this application.

--
Roger Long