QUESTION:
Hello, I am pondering cruising and have the boat now, but wonder what is best for electricity apart from the motor, solar or propeller generator? I have pc, vhf, radio, dvd, autosteering, plotter, etc., 340amps batteries for adl. Can you advise.

ANSWER:
I have obviously hesitated to answer this question because I am really not the best source. However, I can try to help steer you in the right direction.

Your autopilot will take a lot of juice. We rarely used our autopilot, reserving it for when we were motoring. We had a wind vane, though.

Your color plotter and your computer also draw a significant amount of juice (relatively speaking). And a refrigerator and watermaker use the most.

We had about 375 AH in three banks of deep-cycle batteries (two 6-V in series each bank), plus a separate, isolated starting battery. We had two solar panels and a wind generator, though neither was particularly useful when we were in SE Asia. There is very little wind so close to the equator, and the solar panels were quite expensive for the electricity they provided. We did not have a generator. We had two alternators on the engine so that we could charge the batteries more rapidly when the engine was running, and also put a greater load on the engine which didn't really get a tremendous workout otherwise.

We ran a refrigerator and GPS (and the last year we sailed, a chartplotter), and when at anchor, the laptop computer. We had a TV, but it was rarely used because we weren't many places where we could understand what was on TV, if there was any reception at all. No DVD or VCR. A radio to listen to music occasionally, and our SSB radio which was our primary news, weather, and communications source.

Everything is a tradeoff, I guess. In the Caribbean our wind generator provided lots of electricity, but once in the Pacific and S. China Sea it wasn't quite so productive. I never felt that the solar panels paid their way. I am no fan of a towing generator - most cruisers don't sail enough to make the expense worthwhile, and there is always the risk that it will snag on something, or be eaten by a shark (don't laugh, it's happened more than once!)

I think that where you plan to cruise has a great influence on what you should equip the boat with. Better to do with less in the short term until you know that you must have more. Saves money, and often one can do without quite comfortably.

Fair winds,
Jeanne