There are many types of cruisers: some are blue water, some coastal cruisers. Some cruisers are frugal. They adjust their lifestyle to make do with the minimum and enjoy it. Others take all the comforts of home with them when they leave the dock.
My wife and I fit closer to the latter. We are retired and in winter live aboard Agape, our C400 in St. Petersburg, FL. We sail the West Coast of Florida from Tampa Bay to the Dry Tortugas and have dreams of going to the Bahamas.
A liveaboard couple on our dock is working at living the frugal lifestyle aboard. They are using food stuffs that require no refrigeration so they will not have to maintain or provide power for a refrigerator. Not us! In addition to the refrigerator (hull #120), we installed a keel cooler freezer. Our expression is that we do not travel light. All this "living a normal" lifestyle requires mountains of energy.
To support these energy needs, we first installed a second alternator on our Westerbeke 42B. I left the original alternator as it was and use it to charge the engine battery and as a "spinning" reserve. The second alternator is a Balmar 70-90-amp model mounted on the port side of the engine. The original dual 4D batteries have been replaced with 8 T105 golf cart batteries. Six batteries are in the original but modified battery box. Two arc under the starboard side of the aft berth. I installed a Link 10 on the house bank to monitor energy usage.
This arrangement worked well as long as we were motoring. However, when anchoring or sailing, we still had to run the engine 1 to 1-1/2 hours a day.
The solution was solar panels and a wind generator. Before either of these could be considered, an "Energy Arch" would be required. I priced a stainless steel arch at some of the local fab shops in the Tampa Bay area - $6500 to $8500. A bit pricy. Aluminum arches would be somewhat cheaper, but the aluminum hardware I have seen on saltwater boats seems to have appearance problems after a few years.
However, I had an ace in the hole. One of my sons (whom I had fed and educated for some 20 years) is a professional stainless steel welder for a small firm in upstate New York. This firm makes stainless steel equipment for fat and fiber extraction from food stuffs.
I was able to secure permission to build the arch at this firm's shop on evenings and weekends.
To design the arch, I bought $11 of I-inch x 1-inch x 10-foot wood strips at Home Depot. I used tape and cord to "build" and modify the mockup arch on Agape.' I then measured the arch and ordered the stainless steel material. We used 316L stainless tubing. The main arch is 2-inch diameter tubing with the stringers and braces being 1-inch diameter. All the tubing was .065-inch wall.
The construction took about 2 months working 2 evenings and Saturday mornings most weeks.
The horizontal section slides into the vertical sections and is bolted. This was done so that the unit could be disassembled and shipped to Florida.
One photo shows the 3 Shell 80-watt panels mounted on the horizontal section with room for one more panel.
Another shows a Fourwinds II wind generator mounted on one of the welded vertical tubes. When I designed the arch, I did not know which generator I would use but figured that vertical tubes welded to the aft corners would be useful. They were.
Agape' also has a backstay-mounted radar. Originally, this unit was anchored to the deck on the port quarter. I had a pad welded on the rear arch about 30 inches above the deck for the radar pole. This allowed the radar to be raised and minimize the interference between the radar pole and the arch.
The arch makes a very convenient place to work on both the radar and the wind generator. The 1-inch stringers act as steps on a ladder and the flat arch top is a perfect platform. If I'm going to spend any time on top of the arch, I place a 1-foot by 2- foot piece of wood on the arch.
The mounting to a compound angle deck was tricky. In the design and construction of the arch, I was able to design for the athwart ship angle. The smaller nuisances were beyond my design and measuring ability. To make the fit at the deck, I cut sections of a polyethylene kitchen cutting board. I then faired this section with a Dremel tool and wood rasp so that I had even contact across the four mounting pads. The units were assembled with marine sealant on top and an aluminum plate underneath. The mounts have not leaked in the 9 months since assembly. I plan to glass in the polyethylene for cosmetic purposes.
The system does a very good job of providing energy for the boat both at anchor and Linder sail. In mid April, I was getting about 4S amp hours per day from the 3 solar panels plus booster. On an overcast day, the power output seems to be 20 to 25 amp hours.
The wind generator is more erratic. Sonic days, it produces virtually nothing. On three days, it fully charged the battery bank; we were under tornado watches on all three days. Yet, the two systems compliment each other. When there is little wind, the sun is normally shining. When sailing and at night, the solar panels have little or no output but often the wind generator is putting 8 to 10 amps into the batteries,
The arch cost me about $1200 including shipping. The solar panels and booster were $1500; the wind generator and mounting hardware together were $1450. It is interesting that the solar panel system and wind generator cost within a few dollars of each other. Yet I am getting 3 to 4 times as much energy from the solar panels. The wind generator does fill some energy holes, and it is much sexier.
One side note on the wind generator was the noise issue. Below 5 knots, it doesn't run and is, therefore, quiet. Above 10 knots it is a very quiet unit; the wind in the rigging makes more noise. But from 5 to 10 knots the system sounds like a threshing machine. The rear cabin was not habitable. I believe this is a function of the natural frequency of the total mounting structure. Other Fourwinds II units do not have this problem. Some KISS generators have had similar problems.
The solution was to go back to my welder and built an isolation unit. This unit can be seen in Photo 1, 2 and 3 at the base of the wind generator pole. This isolation unit cut the noise by 3 fold and sleeping in the rear cabin is no longer a problem.
Also added to the arch is a small swivel arm to be used to hoist the dinghy motor.
I also had the objective that the arch not stand out and become the focal point of the boat; as built, I believe the arch blends into the bimini.
I've had many compliments from folks on the dock on both the design and welding on the arch.
I may add the fourth solar panel, but so far the arch and energy system appear to be satisfying the needs of our complete home away-from-home.