TECH FEATURE TRICKING OUT A NEW Lagoon 42 By | Mike Wheatstone I recently had the pleasure of checking out a brand-new Lagoon 42 catamaran to see what it came with, in the way of factory installed electronics and what you could add to make it comfortable for cruising off grid. The proud new owners were seeking extended cruising independence, energy efficiency and the comfort and quiet of generator-free mooring in Georgian Bay and points south. The owners planned a solar system to achieve their goals. Here is what they did. Figure 2: Top view of the solar arch. SOLAR POWER Figure 4: Victron MMPT controller and wiring for solar panels with aggregation to batteries (large cables). Figure 1: Solar arch with 5 bifacial solar panels. Figure 3: Victron MPPT solar controllers. 26 CANADIAN BOATING | MAY 2024 The most obvious addition to the vessel is a stainless-steel arch mounted aft of the Bimini. The arch supports five 425W panels for a total of 2,125 W. These panels are bifacial, generating electricity from sunlight striking both sides of the panel for an increase in power of up to 25%. See figure 1 and 2. An additional two flexible solar panels capable of being walked on will be