Having ‘enough’ power on a sailboat seem like an unachievable goal – but that doesn’t mean we’re not striving for it! So much of our land-based lives we take for the granted the simplicity of just flipping on the light switch, or having that ice available when we’re in need of a margarita.

We’d have all of these niceties while sitting in a marina – but if we’re going to do that indefinitely, what’s the purpose in having a boat? It’s so we can travel…and disconnect. But that also includes disconnecting from ‘shore power’.

So how much IS ‘enough’?

First things first, we had to start adding up out demands. I started by making a ballpark summary of our requirements by adding up a best guess at out normal usages. There’s the critical boat systems – lights, radios, navigation, winches, etc. Next there’s the nice to haves – the coffee makers, cell phone chargers, air conditioning…it all adds up.

If you’d like an example of a power compilation tool, here’s one that I used to help get me started:

Power Calculation Spreadsheet – Example

But we’re doing what we need to to meet those needs. The most recent upgrades are new solar panels on an arch that we had installed now on the back of the boat. For those techies out there – these panels will give up roughly ~1735W on sunny days from sunshine. We also have a pair of wind generators, each giving us up to 400W on ‘not so sunny’ days.

One could wonder if all these upgrades are worth it, just to let us run our coffee machine and (someday soon) an air conditioner…

Why ‘yes’, yes it is…