Here is a simple way to mount a small solar panel on my M17. It gets it out of the way and out of any shade. It also allows the solar panel to be tilted to directly face the sun.
The 1" aluminum pipe support fits in the mast cradle holder of the Ruddercraft rudder. I epoxied a small cedar board to the underside of the solar panel and attached a RAM Mount to it. This allows me to tilt the 20/25w panel in any direction. I mostly day sail, so there is not much electrical load except for the depth sounder and VHF. I do have an LED anchor light that comes on every night, May thru October, at dusk and turns off at dawn. (I added the anchor light after my previous boat was rammed and dismasted at her mooring by a drunken power boater in the middle of the night!)

I use a Victron MPPT controller and SmartShunt battery monitor. They connect to my phone by Bluetooth and tell me the battery is at 100% every time I go out. It's kinda neat to see the graph of the output current on my phone screen spike when I tilt the panel to more directly face the sun!