While in Peterhead, Scotland last summer, I wandered down to the large fishermen’s port. There I found & hired a local metalworking shop to build a solar panel mount for my boomkin.
It was so overbuilt that with a single modification - adding a sort of hammock made from spare jack line straps - I repurposed the mount as a secure home for my tender. (Mounted the solar panels in the tender’s old spot, between dodger and skylight.)
Some photos:
Pros:
- Easier to deploy and recover tender with boom.
- Protects the cockpit from large following seas (eg was really nice when running in front of 30+ knots/12+ foot seas off Land’s End, Cornwall last autumn).
- Easier to do inboard maintenance / upgrades (eg I mounted a small solar panel in tender for expeditionary recharges of my electric outboard).
- I can open the skylight without moving my tender.
Cons:
- Is sorta ugly. Maybe if I wrap the contraption w/ some old rope in a decoratively seamanlike manner it would improve…
- Worry a bit about excess pressure on the boomkin/backstay/mast - the small fatty knees isn’t so heavy, but still - any opinions on this?
- Solar panel sun exposure suboptimal in many circumstances due to shade from dodger, boom, and/or sails.
- Preventing backstay chafe on dinghy’s hull a challenge.
- When reversing in tight spots must use jedi mind powers to avoid a collision. Or steer with one’s foot (also a jedi skill).
- Windage.
What do y’all think of this setup? Should I be concerned about damaging boomkin or rigging? Anyone else added new davits or dinghy mounting strategies? Been rolling with this setup for about 5 months.
- I arrived last night after a 36h passage Sardinia → Sicily. On the final night conditions were F7 verging 8 for several hours. I ran under bare poles or a t-shirt’s worth of genoa for nearly 12 hours!
. (Protection over the skylight would have been nice too.)
