Sailing Umavideo
Installing 30 Solar Panels on a 36ft Sailboat | Step 491
June 21, 2026 · 33 min · 132K views
Crew lowers solar panel onto dodger under bright sky
What this video covers
Dan and Kika of the 36-foot sailboat UMA installed 30 custom-designed solar panels on their deck to maximize power generation.0:48 The project required a year of planning, including precise 3D templating to account for the boat's four-centimeter asymmetry.1:58 The installation involved 17 power-producing panels and 13 non-electrical "dummy" panels used to fill gaps and maintain a uniform aesthetic in areas prone to shading from rigging.24:59 To ensure a watertight seal, the crew drilled holes for cable routing, over-drilled them, filled the voids with epoxy, and re-drilled the final holes.11:10 They secured the panels using 3M adhesive and finished the joints with a specialized sealant to protect the laminated edges from salt and water ingress.24:36 The installation aims to reach a total capacity of approximately 3,000 watts.30:36 The process demonstrates that custom-fit solar arrays can be integrated into complex deck layouts by using transparent CAD-derived templates to achieve millimeter-level accuracy.8:50
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