TLC solar boat
There are a lot of different projects around the solar boat to improve the quality of life in using the boat. This page lists some of these projects that are too small to have their own page and will be managed from here.
If you have a project in mind and it is not listed below, present this to Quinten where he will help you.
Seat
The seat in the solar boat should be enough fixated to stay in place whenever the sailor moves in the seat. The support for the seat has seen some difficulties where the is not strong enough any more and need to be improved. As of now (September '22) the carbon support is supported with a wooden block to prevent further tearing in the bulkhead.
Bulkheads and Cockpit rim
The core of the bulkheads are exposed to the water that could be flung into the solar boat. This probably makes it that the bulkhead will delaminate in time and lessen the strength of the bulkheads. A solution for this is to treat the exposed core with epoxy resin so that it is protected from the water.
Through the opening of the cockpit is a lot of water that can enter the boat. A solution to this is to create a starling on the cockpit rim to reduce the amount of water entering. A more detailed explanation and the construction of the cockpit rim can be found here.
Parallel to the solution is that it may be possible to close the cockpit compartment from the rest of the boat by closing the bulkhead. As of September '22 while sailing with the amount of water that enters the solar boat, the flow of water gets pushed to the back where there is no bilge pump to get the water out. This can be alleviated by closing the compartment of the cockpit, since the water could only enter via the cockpit. Possible problems with the regulations is that a second bilge pump need to be fitted since the compartments are closed, this needs to be researched.
Bilge pump and hand pump
The bilge pump is fitted right behind the bulkhead of the cockpit compartment. This should be the lowest point in the solar boat, but while sailing the water was never high enough to pump the volumes of water out of the boat. The bilge pump was probably to high mounted on the solar boat. A better bilge pump position or bilge pump need to be researched and improved accordingly. This should be in conjunction of the bulkhead improvements.
Solar panels
The solar panels are fastened with double sided 3M tape to the solar boat. This applies to the 4 panels on the front as well as the 3 panels that are pasted to the retarded panel ( the big hatch on the back of the solar boat). During the testing of the solar boat in Madeira (August '22) the panels came loose from the boat because the sides were not kitted and thus through the waves of water affected the glue on the solar panels. As a means to quickly fix this issue we applied electrical tape to prevent further deterioration. Further the solder connection of the 2nd front solar panel gives a sporadic connection, this should be looked into of all the solar panels to make sure that all solder connections are sound.
Deck
The deck of the solar boat is black carbon where it absorbs heat. This hurts... A possible solution is to paint the deck another colour/white for better resistance to heat absorption. A benefit to this change is that a prime sponsor spot would open on the front part of the deck.