My First Solar Powered Boat Project

[pnut]

Nice

I am very interested in doing something like this.

[t8rh8r]

New member appreciates

Just wanted to say that this is very inspiring, so much so that I joined this forum specifically to see the pictures of this build in progress. Here goes!

[chrisp1211]

Great info here

I decided to go old-school with my monitoring meters. Sort of like and old fighter aircraft cockpit style.

I'm thinking I monitor current from the solar panels, probably after the charge controller, the battery voltage and current, and the load current. The battery amp meter will need to be a +/- type. Then I will need some switches. I am assuming I will find a way to use linear actuators to extend/retract the pontoons, raise & lower the motor, and raise and lower a pair of wheels. I am also thinking some LED rope lights around the canopy would be a cool touch.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3245[/ATTACH]

Is there any point in monitoring the Solar Panel voltage?

I am also thinking that I will have an LED per panel so that I can see that they are working. These will be up under the canopy not on the instrument panel.



At some point I want to remove the tiller/controller unit from the top of the trolling motor shaft and mount it in front of me. I will use some sort of cable linkage to turn the motor. Recently I had to do some plumbing with PEX tubing and I think I could use it to guide the steering cables instead of a bunch of pulleys. The PEX tubing is stiff but bendable so I think it would work well to guide the steering cable from the front mounted tiller/controller to arms mounted on the vertical motor shaft.

YES the plot thickens!

Glad I found this post

[dudevato]

Bruce,
I use an oxy/acc torch. I weld outside and have the breeze blow away the smoke & toxins. The tubing Is galvanized (zinc) and surely poisonous or at least 'won't do you a lick of good

I also have a 110 volt Inter shield FireFeed welder (flux is inside the wire so no gas needed) I use on the heavier projects up to 1/4". If they are larger pieces getting welded I use the torch to Take the Chill Off

[bcroe]

Looking at your gauge console and outrigger set up I've got you tagged as a master tinkerer. Let me suggest you take a look at an alternative to a PVC pontoon panel structure. The pics are of 1" EMT (electrical metallic tubing "conduit") I think I remember it goes for like $4 per 10 foot length at Home Depot?

I got a used 'bender' on Craig's List for like $15. Anyways I like that it lets me make nice, smooth bends in the tubing and the finished product looks a lot like Factory Production

So this might be something that works its way into your Build. I've got I think 5 different size benders 1/2 to 1 1/2" Boy, that large one takes some weight on it to get the tubing to bend

Thats cool, but maybe you would like to say something about welding the 3 way joints. The
tubing is plated, which doesn't directly lend itself to a simple MIG weld. Bruce Roe

[russ]

I'm in Northern California, 45 miles from Shasta, a 30,000 acre lake. I can't believe how much rain we get up here. The lake has gotten 38 feet deeper in the last month. At the current depth there is 215 miles of shoreline. I lay in bed at night and dream of being some 10 feet off shore gliding along silently just checking out God's Creation humming a favorite tune. I can not wait for warmer weather, I'm going Solar Boatin'

Sounds fantastic - I grew up in Central Oregon myself.

[dudevato]

'already thought of some more to say on the subject:
My panels are 130 watts each (have 6) and are like 24x48" They are supported by the tubing with some 6" overhang on each side. I've welded tabs to the tubing then have 8 pop rivets securing each panel. I fully believe this will require No Maintenance but will keep an eye on things every Trip to the Lake or so.

Side note: I'm in Northern California, 45 miles from Shasta, a 30,000 acre lake. I can't believe how much rain we get up here. The lake has gotten 38 feet deeper in the last month. At the current depth there is 215 miles of shoreline. I lay in bed at night and dream of being some 10 feet off shore gliding along silently just checking out God's Creation humming a favorite tune.

I can not wait for warmer weather, I'm going Solar Boatin'

[dudevato]

SolarCanoe, 'been thinking about your new boat build. I noticed on your canoe you used PVC unions. That's a good idea.

Looking at your gauge console and outrigger set up I've got you tagged as a master tinkerer. Let me suggest you take a look at an alternative to a PVC pontoon panel structure. The pics are of 1" EMT (electrical metallic tubing "conduit") I think I remember it goes for like $4 per 10 foot length at Home Depot?

I got a used 'bender' on Craig's List for like $15. Anyways I like that it lets me make nice, smooth bends in the tubing and the finished product looks a lot like Factory Production

So this might be something that works its way into your Build. I've got I think 5 different size benders 1/2 to 1 1/2" Boy, that large one takes some weight on it to get the tubing to bend 007.JPG008.JPG82-30.JPG

[TomCat58]

So we had a great time this fall at Charleston Lake touring around in our Solar Canoe. While the speed running just on sun power was adequate we often wished we could go a bit faster. So when we got home I ordered another 4 of the 50 watt panels I am going to use to build the solar canopy for the bigger boat. So it will have 800 watts worth of panels instead of the 200 watts we had this fall.

OH!, and guess what! The house has solar and wind power!

I can hardly wait for spring to come.

Wow it looks like you found your own slice of heaven.... You must be super excited. I looks forward to more posts as the new plan comes together

Tommy
Serenity Solar Canoe

[dudevato]

those pontoons will make for a Great Solar Boat. Take lots of pics of construction.

[SolarCanoe]

Onward & Upward

So we had a great time this fall at Charleston Lake touring around in our Solar Canoe. While the speed running just on sun power was adequate we often wished we could go a bit faster. So when we got home I ordered another 4 of the 50 watt panels I am going to use to build the solar canopy for the bigger boat. So it will have 800 watts worth of panels instead of the 200 watts we had this fall.

Originally the plan was to build the canopy for the large cargo canoe we used this fall. My wife put in a couple of upgrade requests that meant the canoe would not cut it. 1) We should be sitting beside each other. 2) She wanted to be able to use our zero gravity lounge chairs. 3) She would like us to be able to take another couple out with us. 4) She would like to be able to swim off of the boat like people we saw who were on pontoon boats. So you can see where the canoe was just not going to cut it.

Today I purchased some pontoons that a local fellow had made for a sailing catamaran project. These are really nice epoxy pontoons. All I have to do is give them a sanding and paint them. Then hang a nice cedar deck on it, then on with the solar electric project.

DCP02744.JPGDCP02748.JPGDCP02753.JPGDCP02784.JPG

These pontoons are 20 feet long and very streamlined. I expect to end up with useable deck space of about 8 feet by 16 feet.

Now all I have to do is buy a house with enough garage space for me to get to work on this bigger boat. I found a nice house with a double car garage and it is on the water. It is on the banks of a very slow moving waterway that leads to 4 different lakes. Just perfect for cruising on a solar powered catamaran.

WaterHouse.jpgWaterHouse-3.jpgWaterhouse-4.jpgWaterhouse-5.jpg

OH!, and guess what! The house has solar and wind power!
SolarHouse.jpg

I can hardly wait for spring to come.

[TomCat58]

[QUOTE=SolarCanoe;124832]Here are a few photos I took before dismantling the solar electric canoe:

Its nice you got it in the water. I had to do the same before I could see what I liked and what I wanted to improve on. Thanks for sharing

Tommy

[SolarCanoe]

Final Photos

Here are a few photos I took before dismantling the solar electric canoe:

IMG_0465_1080p.jpgIMG_0466_1080p.jpgIMG_0467_1080p.jpgIMG_0469_1080p.jpgIMG_0470_1080p.jpg

In the long run I am not sure I will go with the canoe and pontoons for the boat platform. I keep thinking some form of catamaran with very streamlined pontoons might be better. The one advantage to the canoe is that you can always pull up the motor and paddle it to explore shallow bays. My current plans are to have pontoons that can be extended to increase stability and retracted to allow for passage through tight areas.

Overall I am quite pleased with the results and I can't wait until I have somewhere to work on this project.

Cheers!

[inetdog]

Sort of like the way the tire companies use to balance your new tires for free (static) or for a small charge (dynamic). It was always worth going with the dynamic way. Now I think that is the only way to properly balance a new tire. Probably the same for boat props.

Exactly. And the way that the tire shops were able to get dynamic balance was by separately determining (at the direction of the balancing machine) which weights to add to the inboard rim of the wheel and which to add to the outboard rim. For static balancing they would split all of the weights evenly between inboard and outboard when adding (if they wanted to do a good job) or just put all of the static weights on the outer edge where they were easier to get at (they sold a lot more dynamic balancing after they did that.)

[SolarCanoe]

[QUOTE=TomCat58;124798]

Another thing you might try is a Minn Kota -6 prop.

Tommy

That is the Weedless Wedge prop that I have on the motors now. By-the-way they really are weedless. The stock power prop would load up with weeds immediately when we passed through a weed bed. So bad there was no forward thrust. The Weedless Wedge took us through the same weed bed with no problem and did not pickup any weeds.