By far the best Wind Generator I've found...

[marno]

I just spent a bit of time finding the best price I could on solar panels in the UK (they are expensive here) and bought a couple of Kyocera's from these guys Aire & Sun Power Systems: Kyocera Polycrystalline Panels
Hope this saves you some money.
I have a Fourwinds, but can't pemanently mount it on my boat.

[Captn_Black]

Yes it does! That's about 25% cheaper than what I've found so far! Though I'm going to have to read further to check how suitable they are for a marine environment....
Cheers mate.

[Captn_Black]

Yup, anodized and everything. Thats a great help ty! Though I'm in the UK my boat is in the US, so i'll have to check the shipping...

[Captn_Black]

You work for/with them? They don't list as shipping to the US... can you get me a quote for the 87w?
If not, can anyone else link me something with this price or thereabouts in the USA?

[Celestialsailor]

I looked at the data and it seems to barely be a trickle charger. Not sure if it's useful for anything other than keeping the batteries topped off "whilts" the boat is at the dock. Years ago and I don't remember where I saw it but someone had used the 1/2 cup diameter vane as they do, except they were smaller and a series of them connected together was some how used up the back stay. It was an interesting concept.

[Captn_Black]

But there are so many things that are cheaper in the UK as far as chandlery is concerned that I'm seriously considering missing a season an d sailing there for fitting out...
Yet sailboats themselves are so much cheaper there!!!
Easily worth the plane fare... I guess they just love their powerboats too much!
:P

[Captn_Black]

Hi celestial, if you take them over sunny conditions in 20 knot winds they are only slightly less efficient than 80w solar over a 24hr period. But like I was saying in other posts, thats not the only factor, but if they were cheaper, and I could afford 2 or 3 then they would be a fine thing indeed. I still think they would be good for my needs though, I've heard so much bad stuff about standard wind geni's....

[Captn_Black]

But now i'm starting to think of fibre glass molds and compact alternators... how hard would it really be to build one or two of these??
hmmmm...

[meyermm]

Sorry Capt but you do not sound like you are listening. You asked for imput but you seemed determined to go ahead with your original plan no matter so why ask. I no nothing about any of these units but the figures quoted are not encouraging and you keep saying you have heard bad things about wind generators. What bad things? Most cruising yachts have one and I do not hear them all complaining including myself who had an old Four Winds that never caused me any grief including the blade noise.

[twisty]

Originally Posted by Captain Jaz

But now i'm starting to think of fibre glass molds and compact alternators... how hard would it really be to build one or two of these??
hmmmm...

Not hard at all. My son is building one(hint you have to gear it up so you get the rpms needed for the altenator to work he is using the gears out of a junk Diawa, my junk Diawa). Of course he is a little(ok not so little anymore) smarty pants, he is also trying to fgure out how to hook 8 cameras out of cell phones together so he can make a '3 dimensional image'.

[Captn_Black]

Thanks twisty, yea some kind of automatic gearing system would seems to be the key.
Meyer, I am fully open to suggestion... what wind geni do you use?

[Captn_Black]

I've also seen otherwind geni's that look more like a water turbine with the tips of the blades running on bearings in a tube attached to a wind vane for direction control, anyone used one of these type of models?
They seem to be pretty robust, though not sure what the cost to power production ratio is...

[Vasco]

I think there was another thread on Forgens a while ago. I seem to remember posting my views a year or two ago. They are useless on a boat and a complete waste of money. I was intrigued by them when I first saw their ad but one look at the numbers and you can see that a hamster in a wheel would put out more. Not cheap either.

[Captn_Black]

Originally Posted by Vasco

I think there was another thread on Forgens a while ago. I seem to remember posting my views a year or two ago. They are useless on a boat and a complete waste of money. I was intrigued by them when I first saw their ad but one look at the numbers and you can see that a hamster in a wheel would put out more. Not cheap either.

That seems to be the consensus... please... advise me!
My budget is around $1200-1500... I will probably not be going not be going much further north or south of 40 degree's. I plan to have 3 Deep cycle (120 aH+ each) batteries, and my power consumption will be relatively low for a 27' boat.
Should I go solar only?

[Captn_Black]

This seems good - Aire & Sun Power Systems: Rutland 504 Wind Charger

And I've phoned them to get a quote on shipping to east coast USA for the 87w panels, I shall post it here when they email me.