"I had a Tomahawk for a number of years, a wonderful boat with good sailing ability and will keep going when you have given up! SWIMBO cried when we got a bigger yacht!
Many Tomahawks have travelled far and wide, I would adviseyou to join the owners association.
We were also low tech and low leccy as well, never felt the need for lots of solar panels and wind turbines. We had 110Ah domestic and a 75Ah engine start. No fridge or heating, GPS and usual instruments, nav lights and cabin lights (not LED), VHF plus radio/CD player.
Biggest concern was the Tricolour up the mast at 25W I always worried on overnight passages that we had enough juice.
Not sure where you would put a decent sized wind turbine on a Tomahawk or a large solar panel for that matter!
We just used the engine to charge the batteries and only had a problem on a couple of occasions when the domestic died. We would go away for a couple of weeks no shorepower or other means of charging the batteries with no problems. Boat lived on a swinging mooring. If I had her again I would put a solar panel on the coachroof to keep the Domestic fully charged.
I had a rutland 913 on the last yacht (Sadler 32) and that was fine but you were always aware it was there! Anything smaller would have been a waste of effort and money. On a Tomahawk it would have been much too big.
Have gone Solar on the latest boat. I would recommend a solar panel to keep the battery topped up."
"Solar is the way. I was a big windmill fan myself, but comparative output figures, plus the noise, relative maintenance requirement, and uncertainty of wind versus sunlight, reduce their appeal.
But they need to be recognised as a long-term plan, and if you try to over-economise, you'll always be disappointed. It's worth looking hard at the figures: a photo-voltaic panel with twice the basic version's output tends to cost less than double; and so on, as the output increases. They're not pretty things to deck the yacht with, so one pricey square meter on the coachroof, kicking out 100w on a sunny day, will be much better use of the money than several relatively gutless cheaper ones, bought over time as you find the cash.
It's worth paying for the most robust version, unless you can be sure that any sort of unscratchable clear laminate you'll cover it with, does not reduce output. Clever (costlier) ones won't be too diminished in output by the shade from flapping lines/standing rigging. Whichever you fit, well worth thinking hard about how you'll prevent it being stolen.
I rather fancy stitching a row of eyelets in the mainsail about a meter above the boom, enabling perhaps 300 or 400w worth of flexible panels to be 'hoisted' on the rig's sunward side, during long beats!
I've had many optimistic and unconventional ideas about vast deep-cycle batteries on board, serving a lightly-used electric auxilliary. One of those not frightfully practical plans that would take half a century to cover its outlay, but refuelling by pure sunlight is a lovely idea, and having shore-style amperage on board (without needing long rumbling sessions of charging by diesel) will always be welcome.
However equivocally realistic my own plans, a high-output solar cell will serve your purpose I think.
"
But they need to be recognised as a long-term plan, and if you try to over-economise, you'll always be disappointed. It's worth looking hard at the figures: a photo-voltaic panel with twice the basic version's output tends to cost less than double; and so on, as the output increases. They're not pretty things to deck the yacht with, so one pricey square meter on the coachroof, kicking out 100w on a sunny day, will be much better use of the money than several relatively gutless cheaper ones, bought over time as you find the cash.
It's worth paying for the most robust version, unless you can be sure that any sort of unscratchable clear laminate you'll cover it with, does not reduce output. Clever (costlier) ones won't be too diminished in output by the shade from flapping lines/standing rigging. Whichever you fit, well worth thinking hard about how you'll prevent it being stolen.
I rather fancy stitching a row of eyelets in the mainsail about a meter above the boom, enabling perhaps 300 or 400w worth of flexible panels to be 'hoisted' on the rig's sunward side, during long beats!
I've had many optimistic and unconventional ideas about vast deep-cycle batteries on board, serving a lightly-used electric auxilliary. One of those not frightfully practical plans that would take half a century to cover its outlay, but refuelling by pure sunlight is a lovely idea, and having shore-style amperage on board (without needing long rumbling sessions of charging by diesel) will always be welcome.
However equivocally realistic my own plans, a high-output solar cell will serve your purpose I think.
"thank you to Rickym and dancrane
I have also been reading a very scientific analysis of different panels and performances in Practical Boat Owner, so I will now consider myself to be better informed!
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