I know you want answers, but there are a few more questions to be answered before that happens.

1. Do you have a motor? If it's a diesel, you'll have heaps of alternator charging capacity, if an outboard not so much.
2. What else will need juice? There's sure to be mobiles, laptop, GPS and maybe more that might need recharging.
3. Think about making some allowance for likely upgrades and additions you might do, such as a tiller pilot, plotter, depth/log instrument etc. I know bare-bones and simple is where you're at, but it's human nature to want more.......
4. Ditto about allowing for longer trips as you progress.

Fixed VHF's can be bought pretty cheap these days, and with a pushpit-mounted whip antenna can be more reliable and give better range than a hand-held.

There are a heap of threads in various forums showing how to estimate your daily Ah consumption, and the likely Ah a solar panel can give. Try searching the electrical forums in "Trailer Sailer Place" and "Cruisers and Sailor"s forums. The former especially has some smart blokes who have posted good solar advice including typical daily Ah for panels around Sydney.

For batteries, if you're on a budget, consider used UPS batteries bought over eBay. I have gotten excellent service from these. They come up from time to time and are a fraction of the price of a new battery.

Cheers, Graeme

I setup the following 2 years ago and it works a dream, just a small boat like yours.

Loads;
vhf
galley sink pump
stereo plus amp
led lights, 7 all up inc nav etc
usb charger
gps

Setup;
105 Ah full river AGM battery
40 W solar panel with controller
victron battery monitor.

Battery has 13.4 volts ever time I go out to boat. Starts motor every time.

alternator doesn't charge battery, so solar does all the charging, probably at max of 2 A

fully recommend batt monitor, you can see exactly your loads and the charge from panel. Shows amps and voltage

wongaga said..
Re solar regulator, google the "Tracer MPPT Solar Regulator" on eBay. I installed one with the remote display option 2 years ago, and it works very well. Very good price compared with other MPPT regulators on the market.

Cheers, Graeme

If you go down that path think 2 small 12volt panels in series so that the MPPT gets enough voltage to wake up early and keep working on overcast days.

My 20c worth having wired a few boats. This what I found works on my Martzcraft 35. Get 2 x 100AH AGM batteries. Ordinary lead acid batteries need constant maintenance and can spill if the boat rolls. Get an accurate $30 (Ebay) dual digital battery meter mounted so you can see the volts in each battery and now for sure sure their state of charge. One battery for engine, one for everything else (house). Buy a big switch that can turn them on/off or in parallel. Connect A 40W or 80W Solar panel. to the non engine battery through an MPPT charger.

Most of the time then the solar keeps the house battery charged and your alternator keeps the engine battery charged. But if necessary you can swap power between the two batteries by switching them in parallel with you big switch.

The reason for two batteries is so if you flatten your house battery your engine will still start if you need it using the engine battery.

Run the power from the switch to a multi-switch switchboard (Whitworths have one) and run the the power to your navs, radio, fridge etc from the switches on that switchboard.

Make sure all your lights are LED not old incandescent. Use cable ties to make wiring neat and a Dymo labeller to identify the wires and make a sketch of wiring you have done in so two years time life will be easier if you have to fix something. Use tinned copper wire. Make sure of that, non tinned will corrode and turn into black dust inside after a short time!