I put a 100 watt solar panel on the middle seat of my Alumacraft P14. It makes a decent table and what I use for a battery is almost irrelevant. A Honda sized car starting battery is as good as a deep cycle because I never use enough juice from the battery to run it down far and the charge current of the solar panel at max won't stress the battery. For Just under $90.OO I got the panel and the regulator that prevents over charge and provides a pulsed float charge which helps prevent sulfation. I suspect that a 12 volt 8 AH battery ( like goes in small UPS') might be enough. I am pretty sure that a 12 volt 18 AH battery would. The Honda starting battery that I have used is more than enough and physically, it is not much bigger than my lawn tractor battery.
I never have to hook up to a battery charger anymore.
