 Oh good. It's raining again. Sheesh. Well, the rain's taking care of itself. I figure out this solar panel mold situation. My first thing I need to do is figure out what I'm gonna do about these here connectors. If I use the standard connectors, they make this big block of stuff that sticks out like this far, which means I can't put the next solar panels right next to it because they'll hit each other. However, the solar panels do fit right next to each other, and maybe I should just make custom low-profile connectors. So I'll have one that'll come out, go down, and the one here will come out and go down. Those will go to the power, and then this one will just connect straight into the one that's right here. And then the panels can fit right next to each other. And yeah, I think I have to do that. I'm thinking I can just take a wire, make a stainless steel, like little pipe thing that fits in here, crimp it on the wire, stuff it in, then silicone around it so it's watertight. And then this one has like a stainless pipe there. So that one, I might just be able to stuff a wire into it nice and tight. Or I could take a wire, put it, make another little stainless tube, crimp it on the wire, and make sure it fits in there snug. It's gonna be a little bit of, you know, fussiness, but I'm pretty sure I can do it. I don't think I have enough of those connectors anyway. So this is my rough mock-up. Here are the solar panels, and they'll fold like this. Now let's just say this is one, two, three, four, five, six solar panels. Now the most convenient way would be to have the connectors facing each other like that, right? On all, all things. And that would make the shortest length of wires because I'd have to have a wire coming up from under to come into here, and then, you know, electricity goes through the solar panel, and then a short wire from here to there, then electricity goes through that solar panel, and then another wire that comes out. So I just have two wires coming out that are close together, and then this wire, just a short one right there. Now the problem is if I have those connectors there and these connectors here, these are going to land on top of those and they'll, they'll stand up even higher than just one set of connectors. Now one thing I could do is move this over a little bit, like make, make the middle section a little wider, so these end up you know, kind of landing between. However, that means I have to take up more space. The whole thing's going to have to be wider. I think after considerable deliberation, I think my best option is to reverse these middle solar panels so the connectors are at the ends. Because the, that solves all the problems. The only downside is I'll have to have longer wires. So I'll have a wire coming in from under to here, and then a wire from here that goes under up to there, and then another wire coming out of there. So I'll have the two wires farther apart, and there'll be a long, longer wire connecting instead of just you know, the little wire. So I'll only have to do that with one middle row because then the other two rows can land on that one in the right space. And since this one is going down, this one lands on the back, the fact that these are lined up together doesn't matter. So yeah, I'll have to have a couple extra longer wires in the middle. But that means I can just put the solar panels lined up straight next to each other. And without, if I'm not using the, you know, the giant connectors, I can just put these right next to each other and I'll have to offset them or put them apart or anything. So yeah, I need to make custom connectors and have these middle solar panels facing away from each other. Man, building things always seems so simple. Until you start doing it, and then there's all these details. Another detail, so many details. I think I'm going to make this in two sections. So there'll be two of these, one, two, three, four, right? Instead of making it just one giant long thing, I'm going to make one piece like this with six solar panels and another piece in front. And I'm doing that because they're going to be supported in the middle anyway, so I don't lose anything by having a seam there. And it'll be easier to get them onto the boat. And if for some reason I need to move them or something, it'll be easier. I think. I think I'm doing that. Okay, so what are the dimensions of one of these things? Of course, I could look on the paper and see what it says the dimensions are, but I like to just measure directly from the source. All right, 138 centimeters, like four and a half feet, if 138 centimeters by 99. All right, 138 by 99. Okay, 99 centimeters by 138. I think I'll just make this a full meter, so it'll give me a little bit of extra space on the sides, half centimeter on each side. All right, so let's make that 100 centimeters. And then I do want a bit of extra length. How much do I want to add? Well, I could just go up to 140. Let's see, two centimeters on each end. Yeah, I think that sounds good. All right, so we're going to make that 140. All right, this number is the panel. So that's the panel size, and this is the size I'm actually going to make the thing. Okay, so 280 centimeters end to end by one meter wide. Plywood comes in imperial noodle units, which is eight feet right there, and 280 centimeters right here, and it's a little over nine feet. Nine feet, like two and a bit inches. All right, so I guess I should take a piece of plywood and add a foot and a half, and then I can get the whole piece in one shot. I think I'm going to steal this floor piece and just confirm that it is a full sheet, or a short one, like I must have trimmed this. And in short, let's check this one. All right, that's a full sheet. Maybe I'll steal this floor piece, and then one meter across. Yeah, no problem. It's flat. It's pretty flat. Of course, if I'm adding a chunk anyway, it doesn't matter if that piece is in in short, I just have to make sure to add the extra inch in. Well, I haven't been down here quite some time. Oh, no bugs. This anti-bug dust seems to have done the trick, or something. All right, so you may have noticed there are no floor supports down here. That has to do with why I want this piece. I decided, since I was being lazy at the time, that instead of building floor supports down there, I would just glue two sheets of plywood together, so it would be extra strong, and I wouldn't need the floor supports. Now, that should also make sure this sheet is real flat, which is exactly what I want. All right, that piece looks good. Where do I find an extension? I just need like... Oh, that's perfect fiberglass and weather. Can it stay just like this? I don't know. I can't risk it. Oh, I'm not ready anyway. All right, I've got my thing here with the extension piece. Now I need some kind of dupe things, although they won't go right at the ends. They'll be a meter apart, and the plywood's wider than that. So I need 280 centimeter long boards that are, I don't know, 10 centimeters wide. 10 centimeters should be plenty. So it's like nine feet and a bit. And all my boards come in... I do have some 10-foot boards. Let me go check those. Hopefully one of those in there is pretty straight. It'd be nice if it had a flat-ish side too. I think I can force this board straight when I screw it in place. And if I'm lucky, I can cut it down the middle without it warping. And I could use these silly things. They have a nice flat side. Of course, the other option is to just cut the sides off the plywood. Because a meter wide is there and the plywood is there. So I'd have, that would be enough. And then these, these wouldn't go the whole length. I just have to cut an extra chunk off this piece, I guess, to put there. I'd probably be fine as long as I'm careful with it. Of course, if I do that, I'm definitely not putting the floor back after. Do I care about that? All right, what do I care about more? Super flying up my nice new boat. Or keeping the floor panel over there in the part of the boat that I never use anyway. And I could replace in the future if I ever felt like it's by buying a new sheet of plywood. Yeah, I think I should just do it. Oh, great, it's raining again. How much of a mess am I gonna make by cutting that thing in here? I've got a broom and a dustpan. I think it's an acceptable level of mess. Yeah, let's do it. Clean as much. Well, that's looking pretty good. I'm glad I decided to go in a nude erection. Yeah, I have a much better feeling about this than I did with the other thing. So now I just need a few sunny days in a row to put some fiberglass in there. Right now it's pouring. It says next Tuesday is sunny. Maybe it'll be sunny for a few days. Man, this is really making me want to finish my house. So I have an indoor big workshoppy zone to work on stuff like this. That's becoming more and more of a priority. I think I'm just, I'm getting this boat going and then I'm doing my house. And the boat will help build the house because I have to go get materials. And I think I want to just make that my priority until it's done. You know what, I think I need to do an idiot check. It's the right side. I guess I could wax it while it's here. Then when it's, when I can go outside, it'll be all ready.