Sailnsea Hydro generators, anyone got One?

[DeepFrz]

If you do decide to go with a hydro generator make sure that it comes with a decent charge controller.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

If you do decide to go with a hydro generator make sure that it comes with a decent charge controller.

Don't waste your money on a controller. This machine is not going to run unsupervised. A battery voltmeter and a brain are all the charge controller you need.

[gjordan]

I picked up an older Hamilton Ferris from Craigslist last year ($175) and after many questions about controllers decided that at 4 to 6 amp output a controller was not needed. I did not want more area taken up by solar panels so the towing gen will fill my needs under sail. It can be used as an air gen, but the blade is so large it could break skulls. I dont think the OP said if he planned to run an autopilot. That would be the single biggest drain and I think a windvane would cut down on electrical drain enough to not have too many solar panels, and if the electrical all goes to hell, you still dont have to hand steer. Just another opinion. _____Grant.

[sebastiankummer]

Originally Posted by Emerald Sea

We have used a W&S on our cat for the last 2 yrs for passaging. I dont think a W&S is the answer for you, for as you said, your too slow. I have no experience with the sailnsea but one really need to understand the specs and your expectations. However, it seems you should be considering to increase your battery bank and add solar. Not only does this offer you more passage power but also when your at anchor you'll benefit from having this energy available. Wind turbines are OK but if your passaging downwind they're more of an ordainment.

Hello I´m preparing for a longer cruise with a Logoon 450 and want to buy a Hydrogenerator, how did you Mount the watt and Sea? on the bathing Plattform?

[Emerald Sea]

We use W&S's U-mount. Its mounted on the lowest step of the 'sugar scoop', center hull. We've drilled into the hull (solid epoxy), installed it with the supplied s/s bolts with large backing washers including 3M5200. While W&S have advised it was not an issue having it inline with the prop, I tend to lift the hydrogen out of the water when motoring on that engine or keep the revs down. We've crossed 3 oceans with it so far without a hitch. Im quite pleased with the system, it does what is advertised to do and been very reliable.

And the package comes with a smart controller!

[sebastiankummer]

Thank you very much, that sounds great. I took the measures and made a llttle draft. The Dimension of the (removable) U Mount are 260 x 190 mm. The last step to the water is 300 mm. The holes come quite near to the waterline but maybe with good sealing it should not be a problem

[Emerald Sea]

Sebastian, that's about right. Ours U-bracket is mounted above the water line, as high as possible - for 2 reasons. It keeps the marine grow off it and when deploying, recovering the genny, its improved access.

Apologies to the OP for sabotaging his thread.

[nigel1]

I saw my first Watt and Sea generator last week, mounted on the transom of a Bestewind 50. Looks a very elegant set up.

[daletournier]

Hydrovane are also a distributor of the watt and sea, they also sell brackets that enable you to mount it to, but beside your hydrovane. I like it but can't justify the price.

[catsketcher]

We now have 400 watts of solar but back in 2000 I was given 2 electric motors by a friend. I converted these to a tow generator.

I got an old 2 hp 3 blade propeller and epoxied it onto a 3/4 inch stainless rod about 700mm long. Another friend welded a u-shaped lug on the end. I then mounted the motor in the stern of the cat. A 10 metre length of rope connected the motor and shaft.

I bought a diode and was worried about the open circuit voltage - it was about 20 or so at cruising speed. An electrical engineer told me to plug it in anyway and it worked well. The 20 volts was reduced to the battery voltage by the large battery capacity.

We got a solid 5 amps out of almost all the time. I only put it out when we did 5 knots and above. At 8 it started jumping out of the water.

With our smaller solar array back then, Toady, as it was known, was really important for us. 8 hours sailing gave us all the juice for the day. I feel that I could have made it much better - fairing the propeller in better to the shaft, using a finer pitch prop, maybe using a reduction box on the motor.

If you build your own it will cost about $200. If it doesn't work then you haven't lost much and if it gets eaten by a shark you can make a new one with scrap parts. I have a reduction motor that my son gave me but we haven't needed the juice with 400 watts of solar.

1 hp 12 volt electric DC motor generator 2999 RPM 12mm shaft permanent magnet | eBay

cheers

Phil