In 1965, my dad sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a 35-ft Piver designed trimaran. Onboard was the very first solar panel ever on a cruising boat. The boat's owner, Venkataraman Radhakrishnan, had friends at Bell Labs who were building the first communication satellites (Telstar I and Telstar II) and had access to the reject cells. There wasn't much on the bare-bones boat to power, but the panel put out enough juice to run the 3-inch, Phillips reel-to-reel tape player on board.