45ft+ Cat with biggest hardtop

[jleeglenn]

Another major consideration is do you want it to sail well or is that not a preference.

In the sails well category, the Seawind mentioned earlier is something to consider.
In the sails well & is built for serious sailing category, take a look at Outremer.
In the sails ok with a big hard top, try Catana…...the 431 or 471 vintages before the company came on hard times trying to please the charter market

[pbmaise]

I would add trimarans into your mix. Mine, recently sold, had a giant hardtop pilot house and I had plans drawn up to increase solar from 900 watts to 7,000 watts. This solar would have covered the rear aka and the back end and been enough to run DC air conditioning and a DC freezer.

At an anchor I had a huge canvas covering the front the middle.

Likely the greatest sun exposure you will have is when cleaning the hull.
While cleaning the ama of my trimaran I could reach it fully from the surface which means I wore a large reed hat and sunglasses. While cleaning the main hull I was almost entirely shaded.

Exposure to and from the shore might be tricky.

[drcat]

As far as making a hardtop bimini for a Leopard 45, I'd suggest you look at thisratsailed blogspot posts for sometime in 2015 and 2016. This DIY project was for a Leopard 38 and cost a few $1000 for materials. Lots of photos and how to's but took some time due to less than ideal working conditions. Hardtop went from forward of steering station on deck of salon using SS supports made from fabric bimini frame and aft end connected to Targa bar.

[sv Stella Maris]

I’m on a Lagoon 450 cruising the Caribbean. I have 1600w rigid residential solar via a cockpit roof extension built myself.

US$2,500 for (5) 325w mono panels, (3) Victron mppt’s, aluminum structure, all hardware. (and no new holes in the boat!!!)

These were the plans from Rolf’s L450 on this same site.

If you go flexible your $/watt will triple at least and wiring will be more challenging.

Hybrid? Nice idea, but I would only try this if both my engines were shot and I had no good diesel genset already...and I was VERY good with electrical engineering.

My engines do their job very well. My solar does its job very well. My modest battery bank does its job. And my portable 2kw genset has its place. Redundancy, simplicity, isolated systems, easy to troubleshoot and understand.

And I am planning 6-800watts more on the flybridge cover I will build in Grenada in a month. Then I can run the 32gal/hour watermaker and all cooking via electricity!!! I can already do it on a sunny day. Batteries always charged by 11am.

2 adults, 6 kids.

800ah AGM’s
Victron 3kva inverter

[Europe Sails]

Big flat Hardtop, ideal for solar