4000W SOLAR UPGRADE on our catamaran! [RED SEAS]

• May 03, 2026 by Sailing Red Seas |
• Language: EN
• Play Time: 00:29:30
• SAILING YOUTUBERS

SUPPORT OUT REFIT: help us finish our projects and continue making these videos for you at www.red-seas.com/refit

We are upgrading our solar panels on our Leopard catamaran so that we are fully set up to live off grid in some of the most remote islands in the South Pacific. We live full time on our sailboat and we very rarely visit a marina or tie up to a dock so we need to have enough power to keep all our systems running and we think this project is exactly what we need!

We have been living for the last 5 years with 1400W of flexible panels (8x175W) on our hardtop and a further 800W of rigid panels (4x200W) above our dinghy but now we're removing all of these and replacing them with something newer and more powerful. The flexible panels have lasted well but we have noticed that 3 panels have failed within in the last 6 months and we can only assume that the others don't have much life left in them either.

We will be installing 2x625W panels on our hardtop which will give us almost as much power as we had there before, but in a much smaller space. And then we're going to add 4x695W panels above our dinghy, giving us a huge capacity.....and they're bifacial so we can add another 15% or so on top of that with the reflections from the water.

We'll monitor our usage when we get back in the water and see how efficient the bifacial panels are, and how true these claims of reflective capacity are. But for now, we're excited to have that much more power to fill our new 1200Ah of (semi) solid state lithium batteries. Enjoy!

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⏰ Time Stamps ⏰
00:00 Our massive solar upgrade
02:46 Removing flexible solar panels
03:47 Installing our new catamaran helm seat
07:04 Installing rigid solar panels on our catamaran hardtop
10:55 Designing a new solar arch for our catamaran
13:11 Removing our old solar arch
17:42 Building a DIY solar arch
24:02 Installing our new solar arch

🎵 Music 🎵
All tracks can be found at Epidemic Sound.

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📖 Our Story 📖
We're Iain and Brioni [The Reds] a couple of redheaded Scots who sold everything we own and moved halfway round the world to buy a boat that we could call home. We have a habit of finding ourselves in the most unusual circumstances, but that’s what makes life interesting! We live in search of the most remote places to live and sail so hit subscribe and join us on this adventure!

🗺️ Track 🗺️
https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/red-seas/journey?find=0&sid=6132493533052928&tc=1679925060879ieours

Sailing Red Seas

We are Iain and Brioni, a couple from Scotland who have decided to sell everything, buy a boat and go where the wind takes us. We are the proud winners of the award for Best Emerging YouTube Channel 2023 and we share weekly episodes of our sailing travels around the world every Sunday. Living on a budget means we get creative about making our own repairs and we aim to explore the most remote parts of this beautiful world we call our home. We’re adventurous, tenacious and always up for a laugh. You can read more about us on our website www.red-seas.com and subscribe to our channel to follow the adventure. If you are inspired by any of the things we have shared, please consider joining our Patreon to allow us to keep saying yes to opportunities as they present themselves.

Channel Information:

• Joined: April 29, 2019
• Subscribers: 19,100
• Videos: 348
• Views: 2,062,108
• Latest Video: June 07, 2026
• GB
• Language: en

Social Media Links:

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4000W SOLAR UPGRADE on our catamaran! [RED SEAS] Locations

• Whangārei (-35.7274938,174.3165604)