So pretty much what I said? A small boat will usually have two 200w panels, at any time one is blocked by the sail and the other usually doesn't make more than 75-100w bc of bad angle.
Panels are already at 25% efficiency, so 650 and 715W (bifacial) today and 750W by the end of this year, at around 100 USD a piece. If you need more power, you can easily upgrade at almost no cost, compared to the gains of having a Starlink onboard.
Those are twice the physical size of the 200w I use now. How big is your boat because if I give up any more deck for panels I'll be at very serious risk of stepping on them when working fore. If you have like 35+ feet then sure put whatever panels you want on there. I have two square meters of space I can give up and no more. Or build a bimini to mount them but that's $$$ and extra maintenance and more cockpit clutter.
I'd also need to upgrade my batteries, deep cycle marine batteries aren't cheap. So like yeah I could get starlink on there if I really wanted it but it would not be cheap. If I was a different kind of sailor it would be worth it but it's not a trivial upgrade. But I'm on the great lakes, I rarely have to go more than a day or two without cell signal. If it was just a matter of slapping new panels on there I'd go for it though.
Fair enough. Although regarding the batteries, LiFePo4 seems cheap as well and I don’t particularly get why people insist on buying the „marine” product which is same battery in a different package. Something very typical in marine industry.
