Boat Projects to Complete
Before we untie the lines and sail away after our 6 years of saving, we have a few (ok, more than a few) boat projects we want to complete on our sailboat.
When we bought Pelagia, she was already equipped with a lot of features to take her out and about. The previous owners equipped her well for their adventures, including the Bahamas.
Here is a list of some of the items already on Pelagia when we bought her:
- Hard top over the cockpit with full enclosure
- 9KW Generator
- Water maker
- Electric Windlass
- New main sail
- 10-gallon water heater
With our plan of living aboard fulltime, and being at anchor a majority of this time, we wanted to add some additional features to Pelagia. Our primary focus was energy utilization. While we do have the 9KW generator on board, and she can power everything on the boat, including the fridge and freezer, air conditioner, water heater, and water maker, we wanted to be less dependent on the generator and more dependent on keeping the house batteries topped off with solar.
Our major boat projects before leaving the dock included:
- New headsail (ok, that was due to Hurricane Sally ☹)
- Converted the fridge and freezer to DC power
- Installed 900 Watts of solar panels
- Installed solar hot water system
New Headsail
We were at our dock in Mobile, AL when Hurricane Sally hit just east of us along the Alabama/Florida boarder in September 2020. After several hurricane threats east and west of us, we made the unfortunate decision to leave the headsail up for this storm, and it got destroyed. So, new headsail it was for our adventures. This cost us approximately $3000.
Fridge and Freezer conversion
We have a well-insulated refrigerator and freezer on Pelagia. When we bought the boat, both the fridge and freezer had cold plates in them, that ran off a 120V AC compressor. Great for being on shore power, however, when we would go on long weekend getaways, we learned that we would have to run the generator about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to cool down the food.
We had the cold plates and old compressor removed, and installed Dometic 12V DC compressors and evaporator plates in each the fridge and freezer.
This new set up works great on anchor. We no longer have to worry about having to run the generator to cool down the food in the fridge and freezer. Our ice cubes stay frozen too, which is a big plus!
The only real downside we have found with our new set up is that the temperature distribution in the fridge and freezer is a little more obvious. We have added two small fans to the fridge to keep the air circulating and are more conscience about what food gets stored where. Food that can take almost freezing temperatures get stored near the evaporator plate (such as meats, salsa and cheese) while fresh produce needs to get stored on the top shelf.
Solar Panels
We have two AGM gel 198 Amp hour house batteries and a separate starter battery with its own ~25 W solar panel. We knew we wanted to install the solar panels on the top of the hard top over the cockpit. We were able to fit two 225 W hard panels and three 150 W semi-rigid panels on top of the hard top without interfering with the boom. These solar panels will help keep the two house batteries powered up.
Solar Hot Water System
Underneath one of the 225 W solar panels we installed a heat exchanger tube pad to circulate water from the water heater to heat the water on sunny hot days. We have a tiny 1-amp pump that will pump the water up and through these tubes whenever the temperature of the tube pad is at least 100 degrees.
When the temperature underneath the solar panel reaches 100 degrees, the pump will kick on and flow the water through the tubes and back into the 10-gallon water heater tank. This will allow us to have hot water (at least on sunny days) without having to run the generator.
We can also get hot water when running the engine, but hopefully we can do more sailing than motoring!
We had all of these projects completed by Saunders Yachtworks in Gulf Shores, AL in 2022.
While both of us still working full time, and not subject matter experts in solar installation or AC to DC fridge/freezer conversion, we did pay a lot more having this contracted out than it would have cost if we did it ourselves. Our total cost for these projects was approximately $25,000.
We chalked this up to boat prep while we were still working, but plan on maintaining and doing future projects on our own, as we would not be able to afford contracting out all boat projects whenever an issue or upgrade arises.
On that note, the team at Saunders was great at allowing us to learn along the way what they installed, why they installed what specific items, and answering our never-ending questions. Hannah, Glen, Pete and the entire crew are all top-notch.
We feel with the addition of the solar panels and hot water system, and conversion of the fridge and freezer to run off DC power, we are better equipped for life on anchor.
We will have an extra source of energy from the solar panels for the house batteries and hot water, which gives us comfort in having redundancy in systems to allow us to not have to rely solely on the generator. Not to mention saving money on fuel and wear and tear on the generator.
We have already experienced the benefits of being able to use the fridge and freezer all day long and not worry about opening them too many times during the day while out on anchor.
If you have any questions on the systems we installed, please leave a comment below.
Live your dream,
