Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

I saw that on some of the pictures posted

on their blog. That used to be the only way wind generators were used. Nobody had them on poles! It was always one of the big three anchoring question. Where do I drop the anchor, how much scope do I put out and am I going to be here long enough to put up the wind generator? If you decided not to put it up someone was going to come by that you hadn't seen in a few months and you would end up staying longer. If you put it up, then you didn't want to move like you had planned because you would have to take it down. I had a "Red Wing" built by the original owners of Down Marine in San Diego. It was a PITA to use but it really put out the amps. Especially in the trades. 25 amps was not unusual but back then battery regulation hadn't been invented yet. You had to watch the battery voltage and turn the unit off when the voltage got to where you wanted it without boiling the water. Later "Lewco Electric" a small company out of Newport Beach, Ca. developed a voltage regulator that tripped a switch when the voltage hit a set point. That was a huge step forward. I remember sitting in the harbor in St. Thomas in the late 80's and forgetting to turn the generator out of the wind when I went ashore. That cost me a set of 6 volt gulf cart batteries. Actually, that was about the third time it had happened but in my defense, it was always a crap shoot. If you left it off you didn't get the charge. If you left it on then you had to guess what the wind was doing in the anchorage and get home soon enough not to boil the batteries. If you never had to babysit your battery charging everyday you really don't know what you missed. The Cruising Life is so simple now. I don't how they do it on Ruffian but I took a small block apart and reassembled it around the back stay. Then I made up a pendent that was just the right length so the generator would sit in just the right spot. Then I had a three legged tripod set up for the bottom that had the electrical cord incorporated into it cut the right lengths with snaps attached. I connected everything up and got it all ready to go before starting to haul it up. I could set it up and take it down pretty quickly but it was always at your own risk. It had a five foot blade which started to spin as soon as you started to haul it up. It got a little scary from time to time. Ah, the not so good old days. Have they ever mentioned why they don't have it on a pole?

Messages In This Thread