This year we installed a new Superwind 350 on Esmeralde. After nine seasons of sailing and charging batteries with the alternator alone I was simply tired of listening to the engine run all that time! We avoided the wind generator option from the beginning for a couple of reasons. The first being the noise and the second being the appearance of the boat. My wife especially doesn’t like seeing “all that crap” hanging off of any boat. Anyway, we decided that we would do our best to minimize the visual and move forward with the cleanest installation I could achieve.

I chose the Superwind for a couple of reasons. First it is quiet! The company has redesigned the blades since Practical Sailor tested the device in 2007 and they are now very quiet. That was number one on our list. The second reason we decided to go with the Superwind was that the blades will survive large winds without intervention on my part. I wanted a generator that would survive if I do something stupid like forget to “turn it off” when I leave the boat. I have done some dumb things in my day and don’t want to rely on my remembering to secure the thing for its survival… There are other features that are noteworthy about this brand/design but I acted mostly because of the lack of noise and promised durability.

We purchased the pole kit offered by the US importer of the unit Starboard Sun. They happily provided me with a longer version of the kit to get the generator high enough to make me feel safe no matter where I am working on the boat. There is no way I can get my hands in the blades the way it is installed. The kit consists of a nicely fabricated mount, the pole and supports. It was easy to figure everything out and come up with a mounting scheme that made me happy.
In the end I probably have about 20 hours in the project. I worked slowly but with purpose. I am fussy and contemplated everything carefully before I acted. Measure twice….

The final product looks pretty good, doesn’t vibrate or pump when sailing and it works as advertised.
We went to Block Island for 4 days last week and gave it a test. Winds were light for a day or so and then built steadily to a good 15 knot average much of the last day and a half. The impact of the generator was such that the normal 2 hours of engine run time per day was reduced to about 40 minutes. When we left BI on Monday the wind was blowing and the battery bank was happily coming up in charge. Less than 3 hours of run time for 4 days indicates a successful test as far as I am concerned.
We will watch carefully over time to see if the trend continues but I am hopeful.

Finally a note on noise. You can definitely hear the generator quietly whispering at speeds between say 10 and 15 knots. It is there but unobtrusive. Nothing at all like those obnoxious AirX things we used to hear across an anchorage. As the wind speed builds the noise of the generator begins to be lost in the noise of the wind so that by 18 to 20 knots all you hear is the wind itself. As a matter of fact we could hear a noisy generator from another boat from way across the mooring field until the owner shut it off and we could simply not hear ours. It is pretty quiet…

Next year we will try adding some zip in solar panels on the bimini to yet further reduce the need to charge by engine...
Bruce