Usually employed to protect the corners of fine furniture, these simple protectors render the solar panel edges safe for humans.
Furniture protectors make a quick, easy fix for sharp solar panel corners.
Issue 137: March/April 2021
It wasn’t long after I installed the solar panel on the stern pulpit that I discovered the problem. You see, the stern pulpit isn’t far from the stern swim ladder. And the corners of the solar panel, mitered aluminum extrusions, are hard-edged and sharp.
The first time I accidently wounded myself on the solar panel, I resolved to be careful. After the third time, I drove to a nearby hardware store in search of a solution.
I found soft, adhesive pieces designed to protect the corners of fine furniture in a number of sizes. I wasn’t looking to protect the corners of the solar panel from anything, but these seemed certain to work the other way too, protecting me from the solar panel.
I bought a couple of packages, each containing four protectors, each protector requiring tedious application of two-sided adhesive tape in just the right places. I cleaned the aluminum frame with an alcohol swab before I applied the corner protectors—err, human protectors.
And I’ve started to imagine other applications of these, such as to protect a dropped sail from the sharp corners of a panel mounted atop a dodger.
It’s been over a year since I installed them, and the protectors are still doing their job—at least I’ve not been injured again. Seems a small price to pay for safety, and they don’t look too shabby either.
Good Old Boat Contributing Editor Cliff Moore sails Pelorus, a 26-foot AMF Paceship 26 he ac¬quired and rebuilt after Hurricane Bob trashed it in 1991. His first boat was a Kool Cigarettes foam dinghy with no rudder or sail.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
