Yay! the big solar panel is now aboard, mounted and connected up.

Both ends are supported by 2in x 1in aluminium channel bearers. For the forward end, I was able to re-use the posts that supported the original 100w panel. For the after end, I made a hatch garage, which was needed in any case, and bolted the channel onto that.

On a sunny day, with the battery almost full, the panel was generating 270W:  6.5A @ 42V coming from the panel to the controller, 9.8A @ 27.5V going from the controller into the battery, so the controller is doing as advertised.

I'm beginning to think that the cable connector as supplied with the Haswing is not very convenient, especially for moving the motor from side to side or stowing it below. It's difficult to install it in the boat in a waterproof manner. Perhaps Dinze quick disconnect welding cable connectors would be better, with panel mount male (-) and female (+) in the cockpit, and female (-) and male (+) on the ends of the motor cables.

I'm planning on having an outboard bracket mounted on each side of the stern, similar placement to this (hard to find pictures of sailboats), just forward enough to not interfere with the rudder:

When not in use it would be mounted on the pushpit and on passage down below.

One on each side so that I have the option to motorsail. I like the idea of feeding the 2-300 watts coming from the solar panels directly to the motor (free power!) for a very nice speed boost in calm conditions as well as improved pointing ability. And for the ability to motorsail under less ideal conditions, for example trying to make entry before nightfall in a chop, keeping the motor properly on the leeward side (its adjustability is excellent btw).

With a stinknoise engine I would never consider motorsailing unless I really had to but now it will open up a new range of possibilities.

The arrangement won't be very pretty, but...

David wrote:

I put it in place. Problem solved. The prop now whizzes round. It's quite noisy for an electric drive (out of the water), but nowhere near as noisy as a petrol outboard, of course. I think I'll be reassured if I can hear it going, and how fast. If it were completely silent, that might be too little information.

Having read this feedback a while back I was positively surprised to find that it's not really that noisy, in my opinion! Did a quick test with two 60Ah 12V lead-acid batteries so didn't want to crank it up that much but I'm very happy overall thus far. It seems decently built and I was happy when I noticed the throttle handle is "telescope-extendable" by some 15-20 cm.

It will also be harder on your AC power brick, which is likely to run hotter, whether or not this will cause it to die earlier, who knows.

Better to be safe then, given that my (remote) job depends on having a proper working laptop.

If you use your laptop a lot (like a navigation computer) it might be worth sourcing a DC-DC converter for it.

During periods when I work it'll be running probably 10+ hours per day. For navigation I'll use a Raspberry Pi to keep the power requirements low.

I've never tried this with a Mac.  Apparently their Mag connectors have an extra wire to see if the power supply is "valid".

Yes, the middle pin is for this and apparently there's some electronics in the plug so I would just cannibalize an existing charger (I have a couple of spares) and hook it up to DC.