Watt & Sea Hydrogenerators

[JazzyO]

Still doesn't make any sense to me. Just disconnect some generators.


Onno

[Rubikoop]

Well there you go, thinking like an engineer. :-)


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[Jim Cate]

All this talk has made me realize just how good our home brew trolling generator was. They are a bit of a PITA to recover, but are simple and effective at normal cruising speeds of 5-8 knots. Could be designed for higher speeds I suppose, never was an issue for us.

For those not familiar, have a look at Hamilton-Ferris. They sell a similar model, but they are easy to make for yourself. Also, there have been several threads on this subject in years past.

Jim

[s/v Beth]

Jim, did you make a geni out of a trolling motor? I would like to see it and hear how you did it!

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by Rubikoop

Well there you go, thinking like an engineer. :-)


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Thanks! I try to, but thinking if difficult for a mining engineer.

Onno


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[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Jim, did you make a geni out of a trolling motor? I would like to see it and hear how you did it!

+1. Also I'm at an anchorage that has 2-3 knots at each tide shift I would think there'd be a cheap way of harnessing that.

[Jim Cate]

Newt and Sparrow...

No, I used a surplus 32 volt perm magnet DC motor from an old reel to reel tape drive, 50 feet of 1/2 inch double braid dacron, a ~40 inch long s/s shaft with a 6 hp Johnson o/b prop on it. Started useful output of 1-2 amps at around 4 knots, ~4-5 A at 5 knots and 10 A at six knots. At higher speeds the output went up rapidly, but the prop would jump out of the water frequently and that buggered the average output badly, and often tied great knots in the torque line! It would have worked lots better with some of the new line made for torque resistance. A friend made one with a small hydrofoil oriented to drive the prop downwards, and used some scrap 1x19 rigging wire instead of rope. He claimed great performance, but I never witnessed it!

If I was to do it again, I'd try a Fisher-Pykel (sp?) pancake motor rewired as a generator mounted on the top of a scrap small o/b leg. Get rid of the retrieval worries of the troller.

Cheers,

Jim

[sparrowhawk1]

Thanks Jim. That's awesome performance especially for a recycled motor. I carried around a lower unit of a 2 horsepower outboard for years with that intention. I was going to extend the shaft with aluminum tube. put a collar and extend the drive shaft and put a pulley on top so I could find the proper gear ratio. just one of my projects I never got around to. The main problem is that the gear reduction in the lower unit and the pulleys add a lot of friction. But with proper motor I wouldn't need pulleys.

[HR42]

I've bought two watt and sea generators. On its first sea trial from Curaçao to Colon, with just one hydro generator installed I had had all three blades on the prop fold over at not more than 7 knots (we are talking a 42e Hallberg rassy). At this stage I was thinking it must be my fault. Anyways I changed the prop out with a spare I'd wisely purchased.

Well at not more than 6 nts same thing. I couldn't believe it, I thought I'd done something fundamentally wrong in mounting or placement etc. but I asked all the questions? Nothing wrong, the distributor started to blame my mistreatment and/or technique. At the end of the day the watt and sea people replaced these two props and was then informed by word of mouth from distributor that it was a fault plastics issue. I asked them to do a recall but they would not. No goodwill gesture either, they are French witch often mean belligerent. But what about the people out there who may have defective ones as spares.

I bought the aluminium prop at 600$ or thereabouts as my last defense. I've also had problems with the correct configaration for lithium batteries of their regulators, they promise, no deliver. The method to raise and lower really does have to be engineered by the purchaser or paid help as well. I've had a bit of trial and error, improved but not really satisfactory.

What really annoys me though is they marketed a product that was good enough for the global racers, but all I had was pricy product that failed really quickly. If this had happen halfway across the pacific I think I'd be considering legal action.

I really like the concept but it needs to be engineered by Germany or Japanese rather than the French.

I have photos of these props on another device and will endeavor to post these shortly


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[SVNeko]

Originally Posted by HR42

I bought the aluminium prop at 600$

Whoa!

[CarstenWL]

I've also had problems with the correct configaration for lithium batteries of their regulators, they promise, no deliver.

So is the converter configured for lithium now? What kind of lithium batteries do you use?
Just send in my converter to get it programmed for Winston LiFePO4 cells (after having it used on 'normal batteries' over summer.)
Not sure what parameters they can actually change (but asked them to let me know ;-)) before they ship the converter back.

Regards

Carsten

[DeepFrz]

What really annoys me though is they marketed a product that was good enough for the global racers, but all I had was pricy product that failed really quickly. If this had happen halfway across the pacific I think I'd be considering legal action.

During the last Vendee Globe many (if not all) of the boats had trouble with the hydro generators.

[OceanPlanet]

HR42,

We've just discovered that Watt & Sea apparently had a bad batch of the injection-molded props. We hadn't heard about this until a client send of pics of two broken props. We sent the pics & hydro serial #'s to W&S and they promptly agreed to send out replacements. Perhaps when you first inquired they didn't know about the problem themselves...how long ago did you report? If you have pics of the broken ones please email to us here at OPE, along with the hydro serial #'s. We'll see what we can do.

Bruce

[OceanPlanet]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

During the last Vendee Globe many (if not all) of the boats had trouble with the hydro generators.

Although a very few had converter or other electrical problems, the vast majority were physical mounting issues.

[HR42]

Originally Posted by CarstenWL

So is the converter configured for lithium now? What kind of lithium batteries do you use?

Just send in my converter to get it programmed for Winston LiFePO4 cells (after having it used on 'normal batteries' over summer.)

Not sure what parameters they can actually change (but asked them to let me know ;-)) before they ship the converter back.



Regards



Carsten

Hello Carsten, now converted to lithium, batteries are Genasuns, they change the voltage slightly higher


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