Sailing Umavideo
Can we Fit 3.6kW of Solar on Our Tiny Sailboat? | Step 447
July 5, 2025 · 18 min · 132K views
What this video covers
Dan and Kika are preparing Uma, a 36-foot monohull, for a major solar installation targeting 3.6 kW — up from the current 400 watts. The bulk of the work in this step is deck fairing and priming: the crew applies fairing filler to all deck sections, sands repeatedly, fills pinholes, and lays down primer coats, working through the dodger interior last. Pink fairing compound covers the deck throughout the process. Once priming is complete, Kim joins to build a full-scale cardboard template of the cabin top, mapping exactly where each solar cell will sit around hatches, the mast, handrail pedestals, the traveler, and rope runs. The template is constructed in two halves, split on a laser-established centerline, accurate to two or three millimeters, with 10 mm gaps maintained between cell sections so panel connectors align. The session also recovers roughly 150 additional watts of usable surface area beyond the original CAD estimate. The finished template halves are rolled up and shipped to the solar panel fabricator to finalize production measurements. Gaps at hardware locations will be filled with SIGAFLEX, and Dyneema halyards are removed before final cleanup.
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