When we took ownership of Flirtie the one item missing that we had on Distant Drummer was a solar panel to help keep the batteries topped up. As you can imagine in hotter climates like here in the Algarve the fridge is working overtime so a solar panel or panels really does help.

Solar panels and regulators are pretty cheap down here...but the real challenge is finding somewhere to mount them.

Ideally we wanted a custom made gantry, but that really would be beyond our budget....or would it??

During the season we have come up with a few ideas...the one in the sketch below being the most simplistic but offering everything we need it to do.

rugby posts

swinging davit

Flirtie already has a wind charger on a mounting pole on the port rear quarter so our proposal was to replicate this on the starboard rear quarter with the appropriate horizontal bracing to connect the two. The upper brace would serve as the mounting arm for the solar panels and the lower one shaped to clear our heads but manufactured in such a way as to keep the poles vertical at all times. Rather than install a second wind charger, the second pole would serve as the mounting platform for a new radar scanner that would interface with our chartplotter already installed in the cockpit. Finally a couple of swinging arms (davits) would allow us to lift and store the dinghy when Port, Ria or Cala hoping ;-) When visiting marinas the dinghy can be stored on deck and the arms swung in so as not to increase our charge length.

Our first quote for nothing more than the two vertical poles and horizontal braces was astronomical! I suppose what do you really expect from a company like Bluewater Algarve http://www.yachtservicesalgarve.com/ with all their overheads and UK type pricing structure.

Local companies were much more reasonable and we settled on Alfarrobalinox, Lda http://www.alfarrobalinox.com/ after visiting their workshop and being given the tour.



We really can't believe we're getting everything we want for a fraction of the price (about a 3rd!) of Bluewater Algarve and the quality and service second to none! We really can thoroughly recommend them if your in the area and need any stainless work doing.

As for mounting the gantry, a 2nd set of Air-x mounts from http://www.bluemarinestore.com/air-breeze-air-x-marine-tower-kit/ matches the originals and keeps any vibrations at bay ;-)

Pole mount

Stay mounting