What do Northern sailors do in the winter

What do Northern sailors do in the winter

We buy stuff and play with it. As part of the preparation for our cruise we wanted solar charging, we had it on our old boat. It was a flexible 12 watt and it did not do any major charging since the Catalina 25 did not have any major users, it assured that when we arrived for a weekend she was fully charged and ready to play. 

Snowfish has 2 group 27 batteries old style incandescent lighting and the only charging is the engine. Last summer we were killing one battery by the end of the weekend even when running the engine when we needed to. I always like to save one battery for the engine. Part of the refit is added battery reserve, solar maybe wind and a higher output alternator. I wont go into the added load we will be adding on the system this time but we might put in refrigeration. So we have been kicking around the idea of the Solar Stik www.solarstik,com . Looks very nice comes with 2 50 watt BP solar panels and a Blue Sky charge controller. Ok ok I know I could have had this stick built and ordered the panels and the charge controller put it together and maybe save a little money, or arch built. But I liked this “kit” I liked that we could get more charge time (changing angle) then flat mounted panels there by needing less panels in theory. So when Solar Stik had a Demo unit sale we jumped on it. Less then 24 hours after receiving it I have it charging a battery and its set up on the front porch. I am impressed with the build big time, very nice welds heavy duty, I removed the stainless screws that were threaded into the aluminion and every one has anti seize, this thing is well thought out. The Solar Stik will look good on the back of Snowfish. Right now I have a light running and the solar disconnected and I will go out in an hour and let her recharge. I cant wait to get this installed this spring, its the start of the DC system rebuild that I plan to do this spring.~Kurt