The power you receive out weighs the weed issue.. I'd much rather remove weeds every hour and have plenty of power, then to run out of power.. And if you get into a real weedy area, just pull it up for a couple of hours until the weeds thin out.. I enjoyed the video very much.. Peace!
This type of generation will allow to to generate even at anchor. Amazing how things are progressing. I am just amazed at your boat. Kind of like Water World. You truly cruise the world. Like your commentary keep it up.
+John Penniston Mate, what can I say? your comment really spurs us on. I still watch Waterworld, not a huge Costner fan. That movie of his was totally bagged. I think it is his best :-). Stay tuned, we will keep it up! Thanks for being with us, Cheers from Stew and Zaya
I'm strongly considering the purchase of a Catalina 27 in a few days and this thing would be fantastic on the river. Constantly spinning from just the current at anchorage. Or tied in the slip at the marina.
Very nice. When I was a kid in the early 80's we used to sail. We had a little 27 with an outboard motor & I noticed how that prop spun like mad when we were sailing & the engine was down. I told my father, an electrical engineer, that we should make a little prop driven generator that we could drop into the water. He thought I was nuts. He said we pull the motor up because it creates to much drag & then explained how a generator would do the same. I thought a good balance of power generation & drag could be found but he totally discounted my idea. I was to young & already set on where I wanted my life to go so it's not like I was going to do anything like manufacture these units or try to commercialize it but I thought it would be a good, workable, practical idea. It was one of those "somebody should make this" kind of ideas. I am actually very glad to see things like this on the market & I am glad to see they work so well. I thought about it for a long time & I thought it was a good idea but nobody else did. I told the marina owner, other boat owners & they all discounted it so, seeing this work so well gives me a bit of a "I told you so" factor. My "crazy" idea is vindicated !!! lol Great vid. It made my day. :)
+shananagans5 ha! what a great story! now you can just show those "doubting Thomas's" these applications of your idea... www.wattandsea.com/en/media/photos they are in use on many cutting edge race boats etc etc. thanks so much for sharing, cheers stew
Great overview of the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator. I've been looking into one and your video is the best "real world" test I've seen. Very well done, thank you.
Hi Stew, I have an Olson 29 little ULDB monohull (TH-cam Olson 29 Ronin for some short sailing shots) and setting her up for the Single Handed Transpac from San Francisco to Hawaii. Unfortunately with my work schedule next year it looks like I'll have to wait until the 2020 race.
Nice one. Checked a couple of you videos - the W&S would be a perfect solution for that boat. Standard transom mount. Perhaps look closely at how the up and down hauls are arranged on similar set ups (their website shows alot of photos) as you will appreciate being able to raise and lower easily and safely. Good luck with your prep and the race!
Great video! Regarding the weed issue, if the angle of the blade was ~45° rather than 90° do you think that the weed issue would be reduced? Conversely would it be possible to fit an angled skeg to the front of the leg to help direct the weed down and off of the leg perhaps?
Yes, that would fix the issue. Buuuut! , I'd rather see world governments boycott Brazil until they stop the illegal land clearing in the Amazon rainforest which is the major contributor to the extraordinary Sargasso blooms plaguing the Caribbean.
One other question: Is there any sort of built in trip/release system to allow the unit to "pop up" for lack of better words in the event of an impact with ocean debris, etc? What would happen in the event the unit hit a log/etc while engaged and underway? Thanks!
The Hydro Gen's look very efficient...I think you're forgetting "life before them". Possibly mounting some kind of "weed cutter" which is very popular here in the Staes on outboard shafts in swampy areas would be a solution. Enjoying your life ventures....Mark S.F., Ca ;-)
+Mark Gotham - good tip re the weed cutter. Some sailors use a rope cutter on their main engine prop, sounds similar. Glad you are enjoying the vids, Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Very informative! I've been thinking about getting a drag behind generator but I didn't actually know anyone who had used one. Since I don't have a cat, it would be mounted aft. Thanks a million for this video. I believe I'll get one.
You just can't say enough good things about your channel, Boat and Crew are spectacular, Videos are great, Thanks for taking us along on your adventures
Thank you for a very informative video. I have added that to my list of essentials to keep the beer cool if for nothing else. Have you returned to the boat after your stopover in Grenada to continue the voyage around the world? Fair sailing, Ray.
Hi Ray, you will be able to keep that beer cool with this thing! Yes, we have since sailed Luckyfish from Grenada across the Carib and are presently on the hardstand in Central Florida. Zaya and I are doing some mods on the boat before heading off to the Bahamas in about a months time. We have a bit of catching up to do with the videos! Thanks for the comment, Stew
Hydro is so much better than wind on the water. Wind power on the water is annoying and breaks often. Hydro is much more reliable, since the mass of the parts can be large, thus making everything better engineered and resilient. Solar + Hydro is enough if you are moving. If you aren't moving, then put in more solar, and more battery. :-) Even on a cloudy day you get power from solar.
+Timothy Black, I like your views on the hydro vs wind. Yes, I am pretty amazed that our solar does put out power in overcast. I reckon you are spot on about more solar and more batteries rather than go down the wind genny route. That is a really viable alternative to us. I will see how the Rutland 1200 goes once installed and share the results here. It's only because that unit came out that I went down the wind route. Cheers and thanks alot for commenting, Stew and Zaya
I have one of these on the boat I recently purchased.. haven't used it yet as I am still getting her up to snuff. Thing is, in my case it breaks the peace of the cockpit when it is spinning in anything like real wind, so I am inclined to get rid of it and put in a big arch and more solar. FYI I have an Islander 44. So.. I will be very interested in your eval!!! Thanks very much for engaging like this with us. Most sailing channels seem to primarily focus on beauty shots, alcohol and nonsense. I think you have achieved the right balance of entertaining things versus useful things to keep it up to par. You even have me considering finding two Mongolian women willing to come with me when I cast off :-) They are great crew!
+Timothy Black - people with noisy wind generators say they get used to it, unfortunately the ppl anchored or moored around them are expected to as well! Still, I would take a noisy wind gen as a neighbour any day over a deck mounted gasoline generator - Argh! Maybe take a look at the Rutland 1200 next time you see one in a harbour or marina and see if you can hear it? Zaya says thanks from her and Tuya! Cheers, Stew
I LIKE that Hydro-Gen! Well Wired and thought-out. I would get a Spare Seal to carry Aboard, just to keep That S.O.B. Murphy out of my hair. (Murphy's Law?) And lots of spare Fuses, in case of lightning striking nearby in the water.
Thanks for sharing! Question: Have you noticed any hull speed loss when hydro generator is engaged? I'm curious to know how much drag the unit creates while producing power.
[7:49]I was surprised when we saw the underside, that all the wiring runs under the deck suspended above the water. (I'm sure it gets splashed all the time. But thinking about the design, I guess there is not to many places you could run it. Since the boat is 4 separate pieces lashed together. (Hmm, how IS the Pod attached to the cross beams?) But I do wonder if you needed to make repairs or changes, or dissemble the boat, is there some big junction boxes under the deck where all the wires connect? Or are you going to have to disconnect all the wires and yank them out of all the stuffing tubes where they pass through the hulls/deck pod?
Yes, all need to be pulled out of the glands in order to replace wiring. Not a biggie. We like having the wiring open and accessible. It really is good seamanship to do it this way. Not hide it all under pretty panels etc etc. Great comment, thank you. Stew
Black Hat It wasn't mentioned but hyrdogenerators need to be installed so they can center themself in the current. Not centered strains the bearings and bushing. Between the hulls of the catamaran is optimum. Actually so significant the size of the well installed unit, actually a key reason to chose a catamaran over a monohaul for a blue water boat.
Nice job on this description of the "Watt-Sea' - I was wondering when I noticed this on your previous boat tour - very sustainably cool ! What a feeling to have 'too much power' ! Very impressive and I can imagine it to be an instant hydro-gen on land too. I would bet your battery life extends now as well. Seems even at anchor in some current - you'll get a decent charge going... * In regards to seaweed collecting on that leg - I wonder if you could epoxy a fine cutting blade on it ?? On your departure I noticed the wave level , and then ha - I see your glass sitting on the ttable - - No tricks there - no magnets !?? This why I love catamarans or Tri's ! Nice vid - thanks again you guys ! Scott
+Key Topic bingo! Epoxy a razor blade to the leading edge occurred to me as well while on that passage. I wonder if it would work. Health and Safety would likely have something to say about it! Yeah, sometimes I have a chuckle about "sailing on the level". Surfing at 10, 12, 15 knots under vane steering with a coffee sitting on the table and the crew happily talking amongst themselves is something to behold! Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Thanks for the video on the Watt and Sea. I hope to be setting out on my own sailing adventures in the next year or 2 and have wondered what was the best option to compliment the solar cells. I didn't notice if you have a wind generator and if so how do you like it? Thanks in advance.
+JC F. great to hear of your plans to set off ! and that the video is of use to you. We have recently bought a Rutland 1200 wind generator and will fit it to the mast head of the main mast (where it belongs in my view :-) . We are really excited to add this unit as it will solve our energy needs on anchor. We saw a couple of them in Grenada (and didn't hear them!) so they look super good. Also, they have a really low start up wind speed which is where you want the wind genny to perform. Will do a video on it after we have given it a decent trial. Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Yes, I agree the mast is the best place for it, the only thing is it would just be harder to service or lock the turbine blades if a person gets caught in a storm where the winds exceed their max speed limit.
Is it possible to have catamaran with wind turbines, solar panels and more than 4 hydroelectric power but without the sail? A free energy system power boat? I am thinking about a day dream like that.
Really enjoyed this video thanks. I am wondering why the designers of this product do not angle the leg to allow weed to just slide off? Will the current whilst anchored be sufficient to provide any electrical current at all? Thanks for your series.
+David H - that sounds like a clever design improvement ! I guess the weed in the Caribbean, as sad to see as it is, is a fairly local problem to that area. There are a ton of boats there though! Maybe food for thought for the manufacturers! Re anchoring, I guess if we anchored in anything over a 3 kt current the unit would start turning and produce 1 or 2 Amps - haven't tried that, Cheers Stew and Zaya
+Snake Plisken ha, nice one. we might have seen you too. somewhere between orange river and the Franklin lock. I waved😀but thought you might have been cia hehehe, cheers stew and Zaya
+Stewart: You could rig a small electric winch to the hydrogenerator and a vibration sensor tuned to the frequency that the weed fouled hydrogenerator experiences. When the vibration is sensed the hydrogenerator is lifted to shed the weed and then automatically lowered.
Re: The weeds catching on the hydro generator. Instead going through the hassle of untying the lines, raising and lowering it, then re-lashing the lines when its back in place, what about getting a thin stiff wood stick with an appropriately shaped v-notch in the end to slide down the front edge and push the weed off the bottom of the unit?
Not a bad idea, little awkward to do due to access issues. We made it easy to raise and lower from the central deck area for this reason. 3,000 miles with it now and we love the hydro. Cheers
Let's see: * Energy from the sun: check * Energy from the water: check * Energy from the wind: workin' on it? * Energy in-a-box: check (MORE batteries desirable? Convert energy to alcohol via still?) (.. alcohol to use as fuel, and social lubricant) * Food from the sea: check * Food in storage (frozen): check (thanks to "excess" electrical juice) * Food in storage (can/vacuumBag/freezeDry): can you can or "room temp" store food? * Oxygen: check,.. this is NOT space * Water from the sky/sea: check,.. watermaker? raincatcher? fish-juicer? Doin' PRETTY well on your way to self-sufficiency! I'm takin' notes. :) ..all we need is some non-petrol non-wind method of propulsion. Big sculling oars (yuloh)? Wouldn't some method to exploit "wave power" be nifty? Some sort of inertial mass "automatic watch winder" thingie that you place on the "swingy-est" part of the boat that drives a high efficiency generator. You could call it the "Sea Sick Gen", or the "Pukelectic Dynamo". Hmmm,.. I shall think on this one. Now, if we could just figure a way to stifle or reverse corrosion due to salt water! ..and I'll get around to more sea shanties,.. eventually. :) Aloha a mahalo nui ʻolua! -Alapiko (used to be Drae Sne, or Draesn)
+Alapiko ma Mālolonui love it mate! pretty exciting stuff isn't it? All this amazing old tech and new tech stuff available to us today. It's almost as much fun as sailing. Keep working on naming the Pukelectic Dynamo, needs work :-) Its time I posted your last shanty on Facebook... thanks again! Mākou i makemake oe i ka pono o ka loaa a me kou moku a me ka hele ana Cheers Stew and Zaya
Thanks for the positive reinforcement to get my dang boat made and out on the big water! :) MOST appreciated. I think "marine electronics" are headed in the "read/control everything from a wi-fi connected tablet" direction. I like the idea, but would need to have at least 3 tablets for redundancy. Plus a couple of laptop computers. Plus some waterproof physical charts, and a sextant, and an unsinkable/solar-powered timepiece, and,.. other stuff that let's me row my storm battered wood/fiberglass raft back to land. And a sat-phone... solar powered, of course... I rather like "pukelectric dynamo" as a brand name, but it might be a bit of a chore for the marketing department. Just sayin'.... Mahalo kanaka ʻoe! Aloha ia ʻoukou! -Alapiko
My first time on your channel. Thanks for the thorough treatment of the hydro generator that you are using. It was not clear if you are using diesel or electric for auxiliary power? From the video, you seem to be dedicating the hydrogenerator power to house and navigating through the batteries.
@@SailingLuckyfish My question was possibly not clear. Do you use a fossil fuel auxiliary engine to move about? Or do you have an electric powered auxiliary engine to navigate marinas and dock?
Based on what you showed the manufacturer should angle the propellor shaft and have the leg enter the water at an angle which would allow the weed to easily be washed down the leg and away. The weed appears to move the moment you released the down haul and an angle changed .
Quick answer is that it is not "ablative". Most anti-fouls shed, or slowly wash or wipe away, taking any marine growth with them but also polluting the water ways. Coppercoat is as hard as epoxy and copper metal. We can scour it with a scotch brite, even scrape it with a metal scraper and it does not scratch or wash off. It lasts for at least 10 years, sometimes much longer. Does that explain it? Cheers
yes thx a lot, begs the question why would anyone use normal anti foul that has to be replaced every couple of years? even if its double the price copper coat is much better value?
I don't know the answer to that. It might be because people believe in miracles. Some folks are alarmed they have to get under their boat every 2 weeks or every 2 months (depending where your boat is and how bad the growth) and give the hull a wipe. A slime layer forms first then the barnacles start. It's easy to wipe off the slime but ppl don't do it then the blame the coppercoat.
great video, now you can to electric stove. Will be curious if it degrades out over next year. what is the slowest speed to get any usable amps from it.
+Sea Journey thanks alot! it starts producing at around 3 knots boat speed, an amp or two. Then 7 or 8 Amps at 5 kts boat speed, i..e exponential. There is a larger diameter propeller available for low boat speeds and also the opposite too. The 240mm we use sits in the middle of the range. I dont expect the performance to degrade, if so its most likely due to aging wiring, connections etc which we will keep an eye on. Cheers Stewart
Hi Stew, I am sorry if I ask a question you have already answered to...... could you please let me know what is the number of batteries and technology you are mounting on your Boat? I am very interested in this water generator, I hope to be able soon to share my experience with it. Nice videos and very well explained. Keep going Best regards and safe sailing. Andrea
+andrea spinoglio hi and thank you for the question. Please take a look at www.svluckyfish.com/electrics-living-on-wind-sun-and-hydro/ its all covered there. Also there is a link to a spreadsheet summarising our Energy Consumption at anchor and on passage. Please dont hesitate to ask any other questions, cheers, Stewart
+ML L Hi mate, I have just added that detail to the link. Meantime, yes 12V, 970mm, 300W (suits the ave speed profile for our boat 5.5 to 7 knots and our energy needs), 240mm prop. If you go back to the page now you will also find a link to the spec sheet from the manufacturer, which is very useful!) Cheers Stewart
+MAL L that's a good question and has me looking back over the output graphs for the various propellers, again! Looking at the swept area for the 240mm vs the 280mm props, from around 6kts and up there appears to be about 16% more output from the bigger prop, at the cost of 30% more swept area (drag). So, to go to the larger prop you would have to have a 'need' for the extra power. At this stage we don't appear to have the need for more power so the 240mm seems appropriate. As for speeds on the boat, you have me updating the website again, as we get asked that question alot. All answers here www.svluckyfish.com/fast-luckyfish-go/
+MAL L - at 22T i doubt your boat will notice the difference in drag one bit!. A boat of that size will likely have alot more electrical demand than us, so that is a pretty good case for the 600W unit. What kind of boat are you looking at?
Hello Stewart and Zaya, Great video! Now you have the power, do you think you will install an electric autopilot also? Or are the Wharram wind pilots all you think you will need? I just bought the plans for the Wharram pilots and was wondering what you thought before I launch into building a set. Once again, fantastic video. Paul
Hi Paul, thanks and great to hear you are building the vane steering. re the autopilot, I bought one but never found the need to install it. I thought it might be needed running dead square to the wind but the vane steering works fine on that too. So I sold it :-) Try to use light material for the blade, we have a stiff boatbuilding foam, polyurethane I think, about 8mm thick and two packed. Its really light. If you pm me I will send you the dimensions of the blades. We have 2 sizes for under and over 8 knots true wind. Watch your mounting position relative to the stays.. they can interfere with the movement of the blades. Our mount can slide for and aft depending on the point of sail we are on. Two improvements to consider - make that fore and aft sliding super easy - i.e. a bolt with wing nut and a slot for the slide.. (we have holes - not ideal) , and put your counter weight on a slide to (up and down) that way you can use one weight for both blade sizes. Lastly, make everything run smooth as possible, low friction I think is what makes them work so well. SIlicon spray everything, every now and again. Cheers, Stew
The difference under sail is the main one. At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of apparent wind. Something we rarely see as we spend much of our time reaching or running. Do you have a boat currently? Cheers and great question
Not yet, I've been watching your channel as well as several others. And I'm headed that direction. But I still have about a year on dry land to complete. In this year I want to learn how to sail and buy a cheap 22 ft or so. Then sell it and get a larger one. I'd prefer a cat. But there is a drastic cost difference.
A year is not long but can seem that way when you are waiting for a boat... The reason we make these videos is to show what adventures can be enjoyed on a cat that doesnt cost the earth... a few years hard work and saving noted! Great to hear you are following us. Good plan starting out with the mono. Good luck from Stew and crew
This is what we need, how much would it cost if we standardise it? like you have did modification to already manufactured, if want to push 3 hull 50 ft. yacht with 5 cabins
+cartmanrlsusall thanks mate, thats interesting you say that. Wood boats do seem to have more soul than plastic, I would agree with you. Cheers from Stew and Zaya
+nonslave - with the set up on our boat, it probably wouldn't help. We tend to get the weed on the leg, not the prop. This may be due to the fact its not sitting in the clean flat wake behind a transom. With our leg, the weed gets pushed up and down by the wave action between the hulls, often just blowing it off. So, in short, a line cutter wouldnt be suited for us... thanks for the suggestion though!
Extra power.. Think about installing a 12v heat coil in Your hot water tank. Or if You don't have a hot water tank, install one. I suppose You could also come up with a way to evaporate sea water for fresh water.
+Karl Friedrich - that idea looks good on paper, but whenever I look at applying it to the leg, it sends chills down me as a safety thing. More thought required.... cheers
Thanks - learning to sail isn't that hard or expensive. Find your nearest low key, family type yacht club. They will often have training boats and folks you can crew with to learn. If you hunt around and find the right club, you will never look back. Cheers, Stew.
Luckyfish Gets Away the thanks I'll check it out I have designed and built several wind turbines Ines and solar systems over the years I am very interested in what they are doing thanks again good luck
This boat does not use electric drives. Its auxiliaries are 2 x 9.9HP gas powered engines. To convert the boat to electric propulsion off the shelf - would cost in excess of USD$30K - we'd love to do it but will wait for pricing to come down. Cheers, Stew
+cartmnrlsusall - an induction cooktop is under consideration - great suggestion. Are you familiar with any of them? care to share any experience you have? I am a newbie to them, although the local hot pot restaurant uses them for the dining tables and they seem great. I gather they are quite energy efficient. Cheers, Stew
yup I have one it came with a large multi use pan,its called a copperchef,i use it outside when I grill to make sauce,works good I don't know how much power it uses.im happy you worked out the lashing issue,who knew smaller ropes were better than large ones it seems that's a common issue with wharrems
+cartmanrlsusall thanks for the tip on the copperchef. Googling them now. We expect to release a video on the lashings about 3 weeks from now... cheers and thanks again, Stew
@@SailingLuckyfish Haha, no. Not for some time. I'm sitting in my house (outside of Detroit, mi), looking at the snow on the ground, thinking about all possible retirement options, (turning 60). I know absolutely nothing about sailing, (but I'd like to learn). Buying a cat, (maybe in the 40' - 45' range), and sailing it around the Caribbean sounds like a pretty good retirement. Do you guys have people pay to sail (board), with you? I thought I saw one of your videos where you had a guy sailing with you, (sounded like he had an east-coast accent).
+Kevin Swanson do you mean the DuoGen? - it's a great concept that does have its applications. People who use them seem to say they like them. I didn't look deeply into them as a hybrid of two technologies cannot do as well as two generators specifically designed to harness both energies. With the Watt & Sea, and the Rutland 1200 we are about to fit, I think we have a good set up suited to our boat, for about the same price as the DuoGen. Thanks for the suggestion, Stew
+laredo jim thanks. I reviewed the performance of the hydro gen during the night time by checking charging amps and at dawn each day by checking state of charge. During the day, the solar was also charging along with the hydro. Cheers, Stew
That's a great suggestion if the weed tangling the prop was an issue. What we found was the weed tends to float on the surface rather than at the depth of the prop, so the weed would get hung around the leg. It wasnt too much of an issue as 9 times out of 10 the weed would simply let go after a few minutes. Thanks alot for commenting? do you have a sailboat? what type? cheers, Stew
tie 2 knots with a bite in the down rope and put a quick release between the 2 knots. do not cut the rope. this way you can get the weeds off without having to undo all that. just quick release and reconnect.
+xdawpax, that sounds interesting but I don't understand it fully..can you do me a favour and send a sketch? stew at svluckyfish dot com and Thank you for the suggestion!
+SV Esprit Libre Hey Robert, great to hear mate. You will love this bit of gear! We are still in Sarasota heading to Belle Hatchee very soon Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Luckyfish Gets Away if you are at the boat tonight you will have one hell of a fire works show tonight. Sadly my boat is down due to battery issues. I was going to head up that way Saturday until I found all my batteries dead. Enjoy the show my friend
As long as we are sailing. Yes. We are about to fit a Rutland 1200 wind gen to help the solar when we aren't moving. WIll report on how that goes. I saw a couple of them in Grenada, and didn't hear them :-) so fingers crossed. cheers and thank you for the comment, Stew
@@SailingLuckyfish my mate just bought one off 'Alibabas' for 300 NZ delivered ,amazing, hes been running it for 12 months now , no problems , we had a look inone from the sail shop down here Picton & the insides were exactly the same but 2000 dearer, time will tell , Great vid thanks .
+climbing and moutaineering enough for our needs yes. Puts out about 8 Amps at 12W at 5.5kts boatspeed then upwards to a max 25 Amp at 10.5 kts bs. We are autonomous at about 6 kts boatspeed (we also have solar and wind power when boat is stationary). Do you have a boat? Cheers,
Sorry, English is my second language... 8A that's good, but your desalination process drains perhaps (much) more? My dreams at age of 18 (as a RC models builder) were to built a real sailing boat, but after some money saving for this project, my todays wife cames in to my life. We start building our home... so all saving for the boat were canalized other way... But we do live almost completely green - Off-grid with the sun electricity, hot water harvesting etc. Today at age over 50 I ow two sea (traveling) kayaks and paddle every year up to 500 km / 270 Nmi in the Adriatic Sea (plenty of islands to explore), plus up to 300 km on the rivers and lakes all around Europe. Some videos on my TH-cam channel th-cam.com/users/atvsteamvideos I very much admire your videos, also a friend of mine circumnavigated the world in home made only 7m long tiny boat alone via the most difficult southern route ... in 2003/2004. It was the smallest sailing boat that ever landed on a Antartica in a 200 years of past history.
Yes, the desal uses 37A when running! so we can only run for 1 hour max for 60L of water. Then let the batteries top up again. That sounds like a lovely life you are leading there! I did check out your channel and found reference to Sam okoli sveta - pretty amazing accomplishment ! Good luck and keep in touch!
+SAILING SERENITY after 20 minutes and a week of filming, editing and sharing.... Suggest your pricing enquiry be directed to your local Watt & Sea contact
Thank you for your test and review on the "watt and sea" gen. I have 900w solar and a 400w (max) wind gen. I want to increase my input power out side of daylight hours and have been considering a second wind gen. or a hydro gen. I noticed corrosion on the join between the prop hub and down shaft of the "watt and sea" gen. mounted on the Lagoon 570. So the quality of build of this generator is a concern, along with weed 'maintenance' and impact risks with this type of generator has determined my choice of a second wind generator, where at sea or at anchor (when there's a little breeze) I can be receiving a charge.
+Joe Bloggs thanks for the comment and observations. Yes, I saw that corrosion under the coating too. Similar to what we see on our 5 year old Yamaha outboards and treatable if it arises. As for it being an indicator of the overall build quality, I don't think that it applies. The unit is a beautiful bit of design and engineering with low drag and high efficiency, used on 90% of the Vendee Globe boats etc etc. There seems very little to wear out or degrade over time so I expect we will get long life out of it - as long as we replace that prop shaft seal every 2 years. Re the decision between adding more wind gens or a hydro - I went through that same process. In my view the two technologies are amazing! but suited to two different purposes. I wouldn't rely on a wind gen for the passage making we do. At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of Apparent Wind (say 25+ knots True). Put another way, we get the same power as a wind genny in just 10 knots of True Wind. Something we rarely see as we spend much of our time reaching or running. This makes a huge difference. We have recently bought a Rutland 1200 wind generator and will fit it to the mast head of the main mast (where it belongs in my view :-) . We are really excited to add this unit as it will solve our energy needs on anchor, more or less. We saw a couple of them in Grenada (and didn't hear them!) so they look super good. Also, they have a really low start up wind speed which is where you want the wind genny to perform. Will do a video on it after we have given it a decent trial. Cheers and our best to you, Stew and Zaya
+Joe Bloggs - thanks for the tip. Yes, they look pretty good too, we see them all over the Caribbean. Real test will be how they age and how long they stay quiet. Hope to report on the 1200 soon. Cheers and thanks again, Stew
+Michael Kerr that seems a bit high for the 300W unit we chose. 're it's worth, it depends on what you intend to use your boat for. For passage making its worth it. Cheers from stew and Zaya
Michael Kerr Eventually it comes down to lifestyle and the power needed. If your even modest $30-60K boat needs a $3,600 accessory to do what you want, not that big a deal. This is not a weekend cruiser item. This is for blue water liveaboards. If you want more power after the top side is full of solar, this is a lot more power. A noisy wind turbine is about $1k for less power.
if you connect your positive cable on one side of the haul bank and the negative side on the other side bank then your meter will read the voltage of both bank together. Also make sure you pull your voltage the same way
well I'm no expert but from what I've seen in this video it seem to me that the problem with seaweed could be easily solved if the the shaft of the hydro gen was mounted and gliding through water in an angle . lets say that now it is in 90 degree angle so if it was at 60 or 45 the seaweed would just slide of without any problem and it would certainly put less stress on the shaft itself .of course I didn't mean to just set it in this angles the whole hydrogen would have to be reengineered but that is easy I'm sure you get what I meant
+patriotpioneer The sleek design minimises drag. As best as we can determine, drag is about 0.2 knot, (4.8miles over a 24 hour run). So not much at all considering the power output. This assumes we run it 24/7, which is unnecessary. Hope that answers your question, Cheers, Stewart
+edward wiebe would love to go full electric. But the cost for off-the-shelf with LiPO's is very high. Say US$30K for our boat (pretty easily driven hulls too!) . Waiting for the technology to come down in price! Cheers, Stew
A hydro-generator stops working, when the boat is not moving. I would go for 1 or even 2 wind generators... they stop working when there's no wind (boat is not moving to drive the hydro-gen., does that make any sense) ;-)
On further thought, yes, it does make partial sense. The cutout power generation from the hydro is about 3 to 3.5 knots boatspeed which corresponds to about 5 to 6 knots true wind speed. Therefore, an efficient wind gen (or two) able to produce charge at that wind speed would have a slight edge over the hydro, in those conditions (which are very rare thankfully). However, the difference in the real world, for passage making, is significant and reversed. Cruising boats generally make passages with the wind aft of the beam whenever possible. That reduces the apparent wind speed felt by the wind gen and makes them less efficient. Combine this with the superior power output from hydro e.g At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of apparent wind. We rarely see 18 knots of apparent as the true wind speed would be greater than 25 knots. And in those winds our boatspeed could easily be generating 20 Amps + from the hydro. Thanks for stimulating some more thought about this, Cheers, Stew
Prof. Michael O. Zeee JCD ECS Don't forget that at anchor navigation electronics get turned off saving power. Especially for his catamaran, this is the way to go. In fact half as big would probably do the job. He will start every sunset with full batteries and if he generated half the power he uses at night he would be fine come sunup.
Haha, good one. Well, you are right, nothing is free of course but after the initial capital cost... its a ton of power for very little effort. Do you have a sailboat or thinking of getting one?
I've got several small boats, and I've got a Tiki 30 coming together slowly in a barn in WV, USA. I was thinking of putting a wind generator on it. I might do one of these hydros if I could build it myself and mount it in a sleek housing like that.
Cool. Really like the Tiki 26 and 30's. Awesome, go-anywhere boats. Yeah, the build is a long road but worth it in the end... WV to Caribbean isn't such a big leap :-)
Ya, brilliant to have all that on your doorstep. We are about to install a Rutland 1200 after a fair bit of looking at wind gennies. The location will be on top of the main mast... it makes the most practical solution in terms of minimising weight (no mounting pole on aft beam and guys etc) and wind aloft etc etc but still seems unconventional to do it this way. I am going with the practicalities and will worry about the aesthetics later. May not be an issue.
"Free" energy?? Not really. A hydro generator causes extra drag on your boat so you don't go quite as fast. It is a TRADE OFF! Go a bit faster or produce some electric power... and store it. VERY little is actually FREE! Even a wind generator is causing some drag on your boat. Solar Panels would be the most FREE energy source.
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![Why CUTTER rigged sailboats are the BEST! [Q&A]](/img/tr.png)
Hey Everyone, if you like what Luckyfish is about then do give us a LIKE and SUB and SHARE! this bit.ly/2tJn10P THANK YOU!
The power you receive out weighs the weed issue.. I'd much rather remove weeds every hour and have plenty of power, then to run out of power..
And if you get into a real weedy area, just pull it up for a couple of hours until the weeds thin out.. I enjoyed the video very much.. Peace!
+Calvin H. Thank you. I agree! Cheers, Stew
HOW ABOUT USEING ELECTRIC MOTORS FOR FROWARD MOTION INSTEAD OF GAS/DIESEL FUELED ENGINES, JUST SAYING OLD ONE LEGGED JOSEPH T RETIRED NAVY
T
6
S/V Lucky Fish continues to amaze me. Following her and the crew always make me smile when notified that you have published a video. Thank you
+Harold Hofmann, Happy Fourth to you Harold. The bucket is in the mail (and looking good!) :-) Cheers!
I mean George !!
Luckyfish Gets Away thank you again and again.
This type of generation will allow to to generate even at anchor. Amazing how things are progressing. I am just amazed at your boat. Kind of like Water World. You truly cruise the world. Like your commentary keep it up.
+John Penniston Mate, what can I say? your comment really spurs us on. I still watch Waterworld, not a huge Costner fan. That movie of his was totally bagged. I think it is his best :-). Stay tuned, we will keep it up! Thanks for being with us, Cheers from Stew and Zaya
I'm strongly considering the purchase of a Catalina 27 in a few days and this thing would be fantastic on the river. Constantly spinning from just the current at anchorage. Or tied in the slip at the marina.
Very nice. When I was a kid in the early 80's we used to sail. We had a little 27 with an outboard motor & I noticed how that prop spun like mad when we were sailing & the engine was down. I told my father, an electrical engineer, that we should make a little prop driven generator that we could drop into the water. He thought I was nuts. He said we pull the motor up because it creates to much drag & then explained how a generator would do the same. I thought a good balance of power generation & drag could be found but he totally discounted my idea. I was to young & already set on where I wanted my life to go so it's not like I was going to do anything like manufacture these units or try to commercialize it but I thought it would be a good, workable, practical idea. It was one of those "somebody should make this" kind of ideas.
I am actually very glad to see things like this on the market & I am glad to see they work so well. I thought about it for a long time & I thought it was a good idea but nobody else did. I told the marina owner, other boat owners & they all discounted it so, seeing this work so well gives me a bit of a "I told you so" factor. My "crazy" idea is vindicated !!! lol Great vid. It made my day. :)
+shananagans5 ha! what a great story! now you can just show those "doubting Thomas's" these applications of your idea... www.wattandsea.com/en/media/photos they are in use on many cutting edge race boats etc etc. thanks so much for sharing, cheers stew
Really enjoyed this one, Stewart. You are clearly a safe pair of hands
Thanks John, glad you got something from this! cheers
Great overview of the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator. I've been looking into one and your video is the best "real world" test I've seen. Very well done, thank you.
Great to hear the video is of help to you. Happy to answer any questions you have. What type of yacht will you be fitting it to? Cheers from Stew
Hi Stew, I have an Olson 29 little ULDB monohull (TH-cam Olson 29 Ronin for some short sailing shots) and setting her up for the Single Handed Transpac from San Francisco to Hawaii. Unfortunately with my work schedule next year it looks like I'll have to wait until the 2020 race.
Nice one. Checked a couple of you videos - the W&S would be a perfect solution for that boat. Standard transom mount. Perhaps look closely at how the up and down hauls are arranged on similar set ups (their website shows alot of photos) as you will appreciate being able to raise and lower easily and safely. Good luck with your prep and the race!
After the boat tours, the gen. tour. That was super interesting and informative. Many thanks for sharing and best from HKG
+Laurent Froggy great to receive your comment, thank you!
An awesome piece of technology this Watt & Sea hydro-generator. Thanks for sharing a nice testimonial video!
+Lukáš Smiga thanks for your comment, yes, great technology. We are so lucky to have this tech available to us today, Cheers Stew and Zaya
Great video! Regarding the weed issue, if the angle of the blade was ~45° rather than 90° do you think that the weed issue would be reduced? Conversely would it be possible to fit an angled skeg to the front of the leg to help direct the weed down and off of the leg perhaps?
Yes, that would fix the issue. Buuuut! , I'd rather see world governments boycott Brazil until they stop the illegal land clearing in the Amazon rainforest which is the major contributor to the extraordinary Sargasso blooms plaguing the Caribbean.
One other question: Is there any sort of built in trip/release system to allow the unit to "pop up" for lack of better words in the event of an impact with ocean debris, etc? What would happen in the event the unit hit a log/etc while engaged and underway? Thanks!
Another highly enjoyable post which I guess took a LOT of video filming and much more time editing. Very nicely done indeed and highly informative!
+DOBM thanks, great to hear you got something out of it, cheers from stew
DOBM D.C.
+Mark Allen DOBM D.C. ???
The Hydro Gen's look very efficient...I think you're forgetting "life before them". Possibly mounting some kind of "weed cutter" which is very popular here in the Staes on outboard shafts in swampy areas would be a solution. Enjoying your life ventures....Mark S.F., Ca ;-)
+Mark Gotham - good tip re the weed cutter. Some sailors use a rope cutter on their main engine prop, sounds similar. Glad you are enjoying the vids, Cheers from Stew and Zaya
I believe it fits on the Front of the Shaft......
Very informative! I've been thinking about getting a drag behind generator but I didn't actually know anyone who had used one. Since I don't have a cat, it would be mounted aft. Thanks a million for this video. I believe I'll get one.
+Charles Thomas great to hear you got something out of it! Our best to you Stew and Zaya
You just can't say enough good things about your channel, Boat and Crew are spectacular, Videos are great, Thanks for taking us along on your adventures
+forrest johnson Thanks so much!
Thank you for a very informative video. I have added that to my list of essentials to keep the beer cool if for nothing else. Have you returned to the boat after your stopover in Grenada to continue the voyage around the world? Fair sailing, Ray.
Hi Ray, you will be able to keep that beer cool with this thing! Yes, we have since sailed Luckyfish from Grenada across the Carib and are presently on the hardstand in Central Florida. Zaya and I are doing some mods on the boat before heading off to the Bahamas in about a months time. We have a bit of catching up to do with the videos! Thanks for the comment, Stew
Hydro is so much better than wind on the water. Wind power on the water is annoying and breaks often. Hydro is much more reliable, since the mass of the parts can be large, thus making everything better engineered and resilient.
Solar + Hydro is enough if you are moving. If you aren't moving, then put in more solar, and more battery. :-) Even on a cloudy day you get power from solar.
+Timothy Black, I like your views on the hydro vs wind. Yes, I am pretty amazed that our solar does put out power in overcast. I reckon you are spot on about more solar and more batteries rather than go down the wind genny route. That is a really viable alternative to us. I will see how the Rutland 1200 goes once installed and share the results here. It's only because that unit came out that I went down the wind route. Cheers and thanks alot for commenting, Stew and Zaya
I have one of these on the boat I recently purchased.. haven't used it yet as I am still getting her up to snuff. Thing is, in my case it breaks the peace of the cockpit when it is spinning in anything like real wind, so I am inclined to get rid of it and put in a big arch and more solar. FYI I have an Islander 44.
So.. I will be very interested in your eval!!! Thanks very much for engaging like this with us. Most sailing channels seem to primarily focus on beauty shots, alcohol and nonsense. I think you have achieved the right balance of entertaining things versus useful things to keep it up to par. You even have me considering finding two Mongolian women willing to come with me when I cast off :-) They are great crew!
+Timothy Black - people with noisy wind generators say they get used to it, unfortunately the ppl anchored or moored around them are expected to as well! Still, I would take a noisy wind gen as a neighbour any day over a deck mounted gasoline generator - Argh! Maybe take a look at the Rutland 1200 next time you see one in a harbour or marina and see if you can hear it? Zaya says thanks from her and Tuya! Cheers, Stew
I LIKE that Hydro-Gen! Well Wired and thought-out. I would get a Spare Seal to carry Aboard, just to keep That S.O.B. Murphy out of my hair. (Murphy's Law?) And lots of spare Fuses, in case of lightning striking nearby in the water.
Thanks for sharing! Question: Have you noticed any hull speed loss when hydro generator is engaged? I'm curious to know how much drag the unit creates while producing power.
[7:49]I was surprised when we saw the underside, that all the wiring runs under the deck suspended above the water. (I'm sure it gets splashed all the time. But thinking about the design, I guess there is not to many places you could run it. Since the boat is 4 separate pieces lashed together. (Hmm, how IS the Pod attached to the cross beams?) But I do wonder if you needed to make repairs or changes, or dissemble the boat, is there some big junction boxes under the deck where all the wires connect? Or are you going to have to disconnect all the wires and yank them out of all the stuffing tubes where they pass through the hulls/deck pod?
Yes, all need to be pulled out of the glands in order to replace wiring. Not a biggie. We like having the wiring open and accessible. It really is good seamanship to do it this way. Not hide it all under pretty panels etc etc. Great comment, thank you. Stew
Black Hat It wasn't mentioned but hyrdogenerators need to be installed so they can center themself in the current. Not centered strains the bearings and bushing. Between the hulls of the catamaran is optimum. Actually so significant the size of the well installed unit, actually a key reason to chose a catamaran over a monohaul for a blue water boat.
Awesome explanation from my brother from Grenada
+Rodell Williams aww, mate. Really glad you got something out of it, cheers from Stew... PS We'll be back!
Nice job on this description of the "Watt-Sea' - I was wondering when I noticed this on your previous boat tour - very sustainably cool ! What a feeling to have 'too much power' !
Very impressive and I can imagine it to be an instant hydro-gen on land too. I would bet your battery life extends now as well. Seems even at anchor in some current - you'll get a decent charge going...
* In regards to seaweed collecting on that leg - I wonder if you could epoxy a fine cutting blade on it ??
On your departure I noticed the wave level , and then ha - I see your glass sitting on the ttable - - No tricks there - no magnets !?? This why I love catamarans or Tri's !
Nice vid - thanks again you guys !
Scott
+Key Topic bingo! Epoxy a razor blade to the leading edge occurred to me as well while on that passage. I wonder if it would work. Health and Safety would likely have something to say about it! Yeah, sometimes I have a chuckle about "sailing on the level". Surfing at 10, 12, 15 knots under vane steering with a coffee sitting on the table and the crew happily talking amongst themselves is something to behold! Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Haha - I love it - 10 -15 ! knots level and smiling !
Hats off to ya !
Thanks for the video on the Watt and Sea. I hope to be setting out on my own sailing adventures in the next year or 2 and have wondered what was the best option to compliment the solar cells. I didn't notice if you have a wind generator and if so how do you like it? Thanks in advance.
+JC F. great to hear of your plans to set off ! and that the video is of use to you. We have recently bought a Rutland 1200 wind generator and will fit it to the mast head of the main mast (where it belongs in my view :-) . We are really excited to add this unit as it will solve our energy needs on anchor. We saw a couple of them in Grenada (and didn't hear them!) so they look super good. Also, they have a really low start up wind speed which is where you want the wind genny to perform. Will do a video on it after we have given it a decent trial. Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Yes, I agree the mast is the best place for it, the only thing is it would just be harder to service or lock the turbine blades if a person gets caught in a storm where the winds exceed their max speed limit.
You sold me ...not much drag either more efficient than my solar alone ...well done
+nonslave yeah, I am pretty sold on them too. Great that you got something out of the video, thank you for saying so. Cheers
Is it possible to have catamaran with wind turbines, solar panels and more than 4 hydroelectric power but without the sail? A free energy system power boat? I am thinking about a day dream like that.
Really enjoyed this video thanks. I am wondering why the designers of this product do not angle the leg to allow weed to just slide off? Will the current whilst anchored be sufficient to provide any electrical current at all? Thanks for your series.
+David H - that sounds like a clever design improvement ! I guess the weed in the Caribbean, as sad to see as it is, is a fairly local problem to that area. There are a ton of boats there though! Maybe food for thought for the manufacturers! Re anchoring, I guess if we anchored in anything over a 3 kt current the unit would start turning and produce 1 or 2 Amps - haven't tried that, Cheers Stew and Zaya
Just saw you going up the Caloosahatchee River, Fort Myers. What a small world.
+Snake Plisken ha, nice one. we might have seen you too. somewhere between orange river and the Franklin lock. I waved😀but thought you might have been cia hehehe, cheers stew and Zaya
+Stewart: You could rig a small electric winch to the hydrogenerator and a vibration sensor tuned to the frequency that the weed fouled hydrogenerator experiences. When the vibration is sensed the hydrogenerator is lifted to shed the weed and then automatically lowered.
That would be useful for sure. !
Re: The weeds catching on the hydro generator. Instead going through the hassle of untying the lines, raising and lowering it, then re-lashing the lines when its back in place, what about getting a thin stiff wood stick with an appropriately shaped v-notch in the end to slide down the front edge and push the weed off the bottom of the unit?
Not a bad idea, little awkward to do due to access issues. We made it easy to raise and lower from the central deck area for this reason. 3,000 miles with it now and we love the hydro. Cheers
Let's see:
* Energy from the sun: check
* Energy from the water: check
* Energy from the wind: workin' on it?
* Energy in-a-box: check (MORE batteries desirable? Convert energy to alcohol via still?)
(.. alcohol to use as fuel, and social lubricant)
* Food from the sea: check
* Food in storage (frozen): check (thanks to "excess" electrical juice)
* Food in storage (can/vacuumBag/freezeDry): can you can or "room temp" store food?
* Oxygen: check,.. this is NOT space
* Water from the sky/sea: check,.. watermaker? raincatcher? fish-juicer?
Doin' PRETTY well on your way to self-sufficiency! I'm takin' notes. :)
..all we need is some non-petrol non-wind method of propulsion. Big sculling oars (yuloh)?
Wouldn't some method to exploit "wave power" be nifty? Some sort of inertial mass "automatic watch winder" thingie that you place on the "swingy-est" part of the boat that drives a high efficiency generator. You could call it the "Sea Sick Gen", or the "Pukelectic Dynamo". Hmmm,.. I shall think on this one.
Now, if we could just figure a way to stifle or reverse corrosion due to salt water!
..and I'll get around to more sea shanties,.. eventually. :)
Aloha a mahalo nui ʻolua!
-Alapiko (used to be Drae Sne, or Draesn)
+Alapiko ma Mālolonui love it mate! pretty exciting stuff isn't it? All this amazing old tech and new tech stuff available to us today. It's almost as much fun as sailing. Keep working on naming the Pukelectic Dynamo, needs work :-) Its time I posted your last shanty on Facebook... thanks again! Mākou i makemake oe i ka pono o ka loaa a me kou moku a me ka hele ana Cheers Stew and Zaya
Thanks for the positive reinforcement to get my dang boat made and out on the big water! :) MOST appreciated.
I think "marine electronics" are headed in the "read/control everything from a wi-fi connected tablet" direction. I like the idea, but would need to have at least 3 tablets for redundancy. Plus a couple of laptop computers. Plus some waterproof physical charts, and a sextant, and an unsinkable/solar-powered timepiece, and,.. other stuff that let's me row my storm battered wood/fiberglass raft back to land. And a sat-phone... solar powered, of course...
I rather like "pukelectric dynamo" as a brand name, but it might be a bit of a chore for the marketing department. Just sayin'....
Mahalo kanaka ʻoe! Aloha ia ʻoukou!
-Alapiko
My first time on your channel. Thanks for the thorough treatment of the hydro generator that you are using. It was not clear if you are using diesel or electric for auxiliary power? From the video, you seem to be dedicating the hydrogenerator power to house and navigating through the batteries.
yes, no fossil fuel generator used at this time. I am not against them, just strive for a future without them
@@SailingLuckyfish My question was possibly not clear. Do you use a fossil fuel auxiliary engine to move about? Or do you have an electric powered auxiliary engine to navigate marinas and dock?
ahhhhhh, auxiliary engine is 2 x yamaha 9.9hp, gas powered
Thank you. Inboard or outboard?
Watched some of your older videos and noticed they are outboards. Thanks.
Based on what you showed the manufacturer should angle the propellor shaft and have the leg enter the water at an angle which would allow the weed to easily be washed down the leg and away. The weed appears to move the moment you released the down haul and an angle changed .
+Chris Boyce that is a very, very good suggestion, thank you.
Chris Boyce The turbine must be allowed to find the neutral spot in the current. It can't be mounted rigidly on an angled brace.
on the existing unit that you showed on the other cat ,were they corrosion blisters forming were the generator joined the leg?
Yes, they appeared to be. No sign of the same on ours yet. Alu will do that. Its common among outboards too.
Would it be possible to put a sharp edge on the front of the fin to cut weeds without adding too much drag or extra maintenance?
+cyclesingsleep that is a great suggestion. I do wonder if it would work? Cheers Stew and Zaya
Any info on why copper coat is more environmentally friendly?
Quick answer is that it is not "ablative". Most anti-fouls shed, or slowly wash or wipe away, taking any marine growth with them but also polluting the water ways. Coppercoat is as hard as epoxy and copper metal. We can scour it with a scotch brite, even scrape it with a metal scraper and it does not scratch or wash off. It lasts for at least 10 years, sometimes much longer. Does that explain it? Cheers
yes thx a lot, begs the question why would anyone use normal anti foul that has to be replaced every couple of years? even if its double the price copper coat is much better value?
I don't know the answer to that. It might be because people believe in miracles. Some folks are alarmed they have to get under their boat every 2 weeks or every 2 months (depending where your boat is and how bad the growth) and give the hull a wipe. A slime layer forms first then the barnacles start. It's easy to wipe off the slime but ppl don't do it then the blame the coppercoat.
great video, now you can to electric stove. Will be curious if it degrades out over next year. what is the slowest speed to get any usable amps from it.
+Sea Journey thanks alot! it starts producing at around 3 knots boat speed, an amp or two. Then 7 or 8 Amps at 5 kts boat speed, i..e exponential. There is a larger diameter propeller available for low boat speeds and also the opposite too. The 240mm we use sits in the middle of the range. I dont expect the performance to degrade, if so its most likely due to aging wiring, connections etc which we will keep an eye on. Cheers Stewart
Hi Stew,
I am sorry if I ask a question you have already answered to......
could you please let me know what is the number of batteries and technology you are mounting on your Boat?
I am very interested in this water generator, I hope to be able soon to share my experience with it.
Nice videos and very well explained.
Keep going
Best regards and safe sailing.
Andrea
+andrea spinoglio hi and thank you for the question. Please take a look at www.svluckyfish.com/electrics-living-on-wind-sun-and-hydro/ its all covered there. Also there is a link to a spreadsheet summarising our Energy Consumption at anchor and on passage. Please dont hesitate to ask any other questions, cheers, Stewart
thanks a lot, thats answer to all my questions and more. Best regards
+ML L Hi mate, I have just added that detail to the link. Meantime, yes 12V, 970mm, 300W (suits the ave speed profile for our boat 5.5 to 7 knots and our energy needs), 240mm prop. If you go back to the page now you will also find a link to the spec sheet from the manufacturer, which is very useful!) Cheers Stewart
+MAL L that's a good question and has me looking back over the output graphs for the various propellers, again! Looking at the swept area for the 240mm vs the 280mm props, from around 6kts and up there appears to be about 16% more output from the bigger prop, at the cost of 30% more swept area (drag). So, to go to the larger prop you would have to have a 'need' for the extra power. At this stage we don't appear to have the need for more power so the 240mm seems appropriate. As for speeds on the boat, you have me updating the website again, as we get asked that question alot. All answers here www.svluckyfish.com/fast-luckyfish-go/
+MAL L - at 22T i doubt your boat will notice the difference in drag one bit!. A boat of that size will likely have alot more electrical demand than us, so that is a pretty good case for the 600W unit. What kind of boat are you looking at?
Hello Stewart and Zaya,
Great video! Now you have the power, do you think you will install an electric autopilot also? Or are the Wharram wind pilots all you think you will need? I just bought the plans for the Wharram pilots and was wondering what you thought before I launch into building a set.
Once again, fantastic video.
Paul
Hi Paul, thanks and great to hear you are building the vane steering. re the autopilot, I bought one but never found the need to install it. I thought it might be needed running dead square to the wind but the vane steering works fine on that too. So I sold it :-) Try to use light material for the blade, we have a stiff boatbuilding foam, polyurethane I think, about 8mm thick and two packed. Its really light. If you pm me I will send you the dimensions of the blades. We have 2 sizes for under and over 8 knots true wind. Watch your mounting position relative to the stays.. they can interfere with the movement of the blades. Our mount can slide for and aft depending on the point of sail we are on. Two improvements to consider - make that fore and aft sliding super easy - i.e. a bolt with wing nut and a slot for the slide.. (we have holes - not ideal) , and put your counter weight on a slide to (up and down) that way you can use one weight for both blade sizes. Lastly, make everything run smooth as possible, low friction I think is what makes them work so well. SIlicon spray everything, every now and again. Cheers, Stew
That’s a nice upgrade
Great Electrician!
You're not wrong. Great guy too !
so how many kw do you need for your boat at your peak hour to be completely electric?
I would use colored wires for + and - coming from the generators to limit the potential for crossing polarities.
What's the benifits using hydro over wind. I would think they would work at the same time unless anchored. Then the wind gen would be more beneficial.
The difference under sail is the main one. At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of apparent wind. Something we rarely see as we spend much of our time reaching or running. Do you have a boat currently? Cheers and great question
Not yet, I've been watching your channel as well as several others. And I'm headed that direction. But I still have about a year on dry land to complete. In this year I want to learn how to sail and buy a cheap 22 ft or so. Then sell it and get a larger one. I'd prefer a cat. But there is a drastic cost difference.
A year is not long but can seem that way when you are waiting for a boat... The reason we make these videos is to show what adventures can be enjoyed on a cat that doesnt cost the earth... a few years hard work and saving noted! Great to hear you are following us. Good plan starting out with the mono. Good luck from Stew and crew
This is what we need, how much would it cost if we standardise it? like you have did modification to already manufactured,
if want to push 3 hull 50 ft. yacht with 5 cabins
Excellent tech video.
Thank you Paul. Most kind.
the sound of a wooden hull is so different from a glass boat .I think I like it it sounds like its alive
+cartmanrlsusall thanks mate, thats interesting you say that. Wood boats do seem to have more soul than plastic, I would agree with you. Cheers from Stew and Zaya
would a line cutter on the shaft help? Those rope pull drag along gens act like a drogue I am told
+nonslave - with the set up on our boat, it probably wouldn't help. We tend to get the weed on the leg, not the prop. This may be due to the fact its not sitting in the clean flat wake behind a transom. With our leg, the weed gets pushed up and down by the wave action between the hulls, often just blowing it off. So, in short, a line cutter wouldnt be suited for us... thanks for the suggestion though!
Thanks ...that makes good sense about a transom mount....my problem is I already have a hydrovane and swim ladder etc ...maybe on my cat haha
Extra power..
Think about installing a 12v heat coil in Your hot water tank. Or if You don't have a hot water tank, install one.
I suppose You could also come up with a way to evaporate sea water for fresh water.
Would it not benefit you to tie or epoxy a long knife edge onto the leading edge of the shaft?
+Karl Friedrich - that idea looks good on paper, but whenever I look at applying it to the leg, it sends chills down me as a safety thing. More thought required.... cheers
so is your solar panels still contributing to your power as well? or can only one at a time be charging the batteries?
+wardell Junius the solar and hydro are independent systems and do work at the same time. Hope that answers your question, Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Wish i knew how to sail to try something different then land travel. Great videos.
Thanks - learning to sail isn't that hard or expensive. Find your nearest low key, family type yacht club. They will often have training boats and folks you can crew with to learn. If you hunt around and find the right club, you will never look back. Cheers, Stew.
nice, well said on the install.
+Two Dogs thanks!
Curious as to the cost of these and is it offered in more than 300 watt I didn't see a link did I miss it
Thanks for great info
Hi Barry, we bought ours direct from the French makers, it was about 2,900 Euro. Here's their link www.wattandsea.com/en/ Cheers, Stew
Luckyfish Gets Away the
thanks I'll check it out I have designed and built several wind turbines Ines and solar systems over the years I
am very interested in what they are doing thanks again good luck
This was super Informative. Thanks.
It's possible to tune a knock sensor to trip the release and relay to then wind back the unit every time it vibrates with weed.
maybe i missed it. how far can it go on electric power without sails? whats the maximum range, considering solar and hydro and battery packs?
This boat does not use electric drives. Its auxiliaries are 2 x 9.9HP gas powered engines. To convert the boat to electric propulsion off the shelf - would cost in excess of USD$30K - we'd love to do it but will wait for pricing to come down. Cheers, Stew
Great videoography
Thanks Jeff A. Much appreciated
you need a induction cooktop for your galley,thats a good use for your surplus power ,hot meals with no risk of fire like a gas stove
+cartmnrlsusall - an induction cooktop is under consideration - great suggestion. Are you familiar with any of them? care to share any experience you have? I am a newbie to them, although the local hot pot restaurant uses them for the dining tables and they seem great. I gather they are quite energy efficient. Cheers, Stew
yup I have one it came with a large multi use pan,its called a copperchef,i use it outside when I grill to make sauce,works good I don't know how much power it uses.im happy you worked out the lashing issue,who knew smaller ropes were better than large ones it seems that's a common issue with wharrems
+cartmanrlsusall thanks for the tip on the copperchef. Googling them now. We expect to release a video on the lashings about 3 weeks from now... cheers and thanks again, Stew
love this video.
Thanks !
Does Lucky Fish have a water maker?
yes. a 12V 60l/hr Echo-tec. Are you considering getting one?
@@SailingLuckyfish Haha, no. Not for some time. I'm sitting in my house (outside of Detroit, mi), looking at the snow on the ground, thinking about all possible retirement options, (turning 60). I know absolutely nothing about sailing, (but I'd like to learn). Buying a cat, (maybe in the 40' - 45' range), and sailing it around the Caribbean sounds like a pretty good retirement. Do you guys have people pay to sail (board), with you?
I thought I saw one of your videos where you had a guy sailing with you, (sounded like he had an east-coast accent).
Yes we do. email me at stew at svluckyfish dot com
wow. that is pretty awesome. I wonder if you need 2 of those.? ??
We have a 300 watt unit which is suited to our needs and speeds. They make a 600W one as well. Its a great unit and going strong.
A simple stick with a V shaped end pushed quickly down the leading edge of the hydrogen will push the weeds off, saves lifting the leg.
did you see the charging system that goes in water or air,have a look at that one
+Kevin Swanson do you mean the DuoGen? - it's a great concept that does have its applications. People who use them seem to say they like them. I didn't look deeply into them as a hybrid of two technologies cannot do as well as two generators specifically designed to harness both energies. With the Watt & Sea, and the Rutland 1200 we are about to fit, I think we have a good set up suited to our boat, for about the same price as the DuoGen. Thanks for the suggestion, Stew
Nice video. Was this test done without your solar on. Or was your solar charging also. Thanks
+laredo jim thanks. I reviewed the performance of the hydro gen during the night time by checking charging amps and at dawn each day by checking state of charge. During the day, the solar was also charging along with the hydro. Cheers, Stew
How much did it cost for the hydro generator
They are about $3K from memory. Not cheap but well built to last a long time. Cheers
@@SailingLuckyfish cool thank you for the reply it's nice to know and plan for
no link to the generator website?
I'm guessing somewhere in the region of three to five percent reduction in speed
You should rig a small cage around the propeller to jeep the weeds off the prop
That's a great suggestion if the weed tangling the prop was an issue. What we found was the weed tends to float on the surface rather than at the depth of the prop, so the weed would get hung around the leg. It wasnt too much of an issue as 9 times out of 10 the weed would simply let go after a few minutes. Thanks alot for commenting? do you have a sailboat? what type? cheers, Stew
tie 2 knots with a bite in the down rope and put a quick release between the 2 knots. do not cut the rope. this way you can get the weeds off without having to undo all that. just quick release and reconnect.
+xdawpax, that sounds interesting but I don't understand it fully..can you do me a favour and send a sketch? stew at svluckyfish dot com and Thank you for the suggestion!
really informatics really good
Thanks for using my music! :)
+Tatono Music Luckyfish loves your music, especially your latest.. Palawan ! Now, when are you coming sailing with us?
Soon I hope! That would be a dream come true!
Great video guys. When I start more long distance sailing I intend to purchase one of these. Hope you guys are doing well my friend
+SV Esprit Libre Hey Robert, great to hear mate. You will love this bit of gear! We are still in Sarasota heading to Belle Hatchee very soon Cheers from Stew and Zaya
Luckyfish Gets Away if you are at the boat tonight you will have one hell of a fire works show tonight. Sadly my boat is down due to battery issues. I was going to head up that way Saturday until I found all my batteries dead. Enjoy the show my friend
Why not join us? we are joining the other moorings ppl for a ring side seat. pm me and we will pick you up in the dinghy...
Luckyfish Gets Away I would but I have already had some rum lol.
good for battery health
As long as we are sailing. Yes. We are about to fit a Rutland 1200 wind gen to help the solar when we aren't moving. WIll report on how that goes. I saw a couple of them in Grenada, and didn't hear them :-) so fingers crossed. cheers and thank you for the comment, Stew
@@SailingLuckyfish my mate just bought one off 'Alibabas' for 300 NZ delivered ,amazing, hes been running it for 12 months now , no problems , we had a look inone from the sail shop down here Picton & the insides were exactly the same but 2000 dearer, time will tell , Great vid thanks .
Is its 300W enough?
+climbing and moutaineering enough for our needs yes. Puts out about 8 Amps at 12W at 5.5kts boatspeed then upwards to a max 25 Amp at 10.5 kts bs. We are autonomous at about 6 kts boatspeed (we also have solar and wind power when boat is stationary). Do you have a boat? Cheers,
Sorry, English is my second language... 8A that's good, but your desalination process drains perhaps (much) more? My dreams at age of 18 (as a RC models builder) were to built a real sailing boat, but after some money saving for this project, my todays wife cames in to my life. We start building our home... so all saving for the boat were canalized other way... But we do live almost completely green - Off-grid with the sun electricity, hot water harvesting etc. Today at age over 50 I ow two sea (traveling) kayaks and paddle every year up to 500 km / 270 Nmi in the Adriatic Sea (plenty of islands to explore), plus up to 300 km on the rivers and lakes all around Europe. Some videos on my TH-cam channel th-cam.com/users/atvsteamvideos I very much admire your videos, also a friend of mine circumnavigated the world in home made only 7m long tiny boat alone via the most difficult southern route ... in 2003/2004. It was the smallest sailing boat that ever landed on a Antartica in a 200 years of past history.
Yes, the desal uses 37A when running! so we can only run for 1 hour max for 60L of water. Then let the batteries top up again. That sounds like a lovely life you are leading there! I did check out your channel and found reference to Sam okoli sveta - pretty amazing accomplishment ! Good luck and keep in touch!
Interesting
after 20 minutes still no price..? what did it cost in grenada//?
+SAILING SERENITY after 20 minutes and a week of filming, editing and sharing.... Suggest your pricing enquiry be directed to your local Watt & Sea contact
Thank you for your test and review on the "watt and sea" gen. I have 900w solar and a 400w (max) wind gen. I want to increase my input power out side of daylight hours and have been considering a second wind gen. or a hydro gen. I noticed corrosion on the join between the prop hub and down shaft of the "watt and sea" gen. mounted on the Lagoon 570.
So the quality of build of this generator is a concern, along with weed 'maintenance' and impact risks with this type of generator has determined my choice of a second wind generator, where at sea or at anchor (when there's a little breeze) I can be receiving a charge.
+Joe Bloggs thanks for the comment and observations. Yes, I saw that corrosion under the coating too. Similar to what we see on our 5 year old Yamaha outboards and treatable if it arises. As for it being an indicator of the overall build quality, I don't think that it applies.
The unit is a beautiful bit of design and engineering with low drag and high efficiency, used on 90% of the Vendee Globe boats etc etc. There seems very little to wear out or degrade over time so I expect we will get long life out of it - as long as we replace that prop shaft seal every 2 years.
Re the decision between adding more wind gens or a hydro - I went through that same process. In my view the two technologies are amazing! but suited to two different purposes. I wouldn't rely on a wind gen for the passage making we do. At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of Apparent Wind (say 25+ knots True). Put another way, we get the same power as a wind genny in just 10 knots of True Wind. Something we rarely see as we spend much of our time reaching or running. This makes a huge difference.
We have recently bought a Rutland 1200 wind generator and will fit it to the mast head of the main mast (where it belongs in my view :-) . We are really excited to add this unit as it will solve our energy needs on anchor, more or less. We saw a couple of them in Grenada (and didn't hear them!) so they look super good. Also, they have a really low start up wind speed which is where you want the wind genny to perform. Will do a video on it after we have given it a decent trial. Cheers and our best to you, Stew and Zaya
Have a look into the "silentwind" gen. - whisper quiet / 5 knot startup / 450W (max) / same price.
+Joe Bloggs - thanks for the tip. Yes, they look pretty good too, we see them all over the Caribbean. Real test will be how they age and how long they stay quiet. Hope to report on the 1200 soon. Cheers and thanks again, Stew
if u enjoy making videos, do them for free!! we r grateful and we can generate income just watching your detailed videos! good luck!!
Or a more angular design that allows for easy weed slip.
Is it really worth the 4300 dollars ?
+Michael Kerr that seems a bit high for the 300W unit we chose. 're it's worth, it depends on what you intend to use your boat for. For passage making its worth it. Cheers from stew and Zaya
Luckyfish Gets Away
It's $3600 everywhere I see, still prohibitively expensive for many boats.
Michael Kerr Eventually it comes down to lifestyle and the power needed. If your even modest $30-60K boat needs a $3,600 accessory to do what you want, not that big a deal. This is not a weekend cruiser item. This is for blue water liveaboards. If you want more power after the top side is full of solar, this is a lot more power. A noisy wind turbine is about $1k for less power.
Has Tuya gone Stuart?
+Fr Ya, no mate, she is back in Mongolia for a while and will rejoin us on a future leg of the journey, Cheers
Luckyfish Gets Away good to hear old sport. Watch all your videos in 2 days. Love it!! Are you ever going to the med do you think :)
+Fr Ya, ha! classic, glad you enjoyed the series so far! Yes, the Eastern Med is on our planned path, cheers from Stew and Zaya, and Tuya too!
if you connect your positive cable on one side of the haul bank and the negative side on the other side bank then your meter will read the voltage of both bank together. Also make sure you pull your voltage the same way
well I'm no expert but from what I've seen in this video it seem to me that the problem with seaweed could be easily solved if the the shaft of the hydro gen was mounted and gliding through water in an angle . lets say that now it is in 90 degree angle so if it was at 60 or 45 the seaweed would just slide of without any problem and it would certainly put less stress on the shaft itself .of course I didn't mean to just set it in this angles the whole hydrogen would have to be reengineered but that is easy I'm sure you get what I meant
Does it cost any boat speed when it's in the water?
+patriotpioneer The sleek design minimises drag. As best as we can determine, drag is about 0.2 knot, (4.8miles over a 24 hour run). So not much at all considering the power output. This assumes we run it 24/7, which is unnecessary. Hope that answers your question, Cheers, Stewart
you do have a logo on boat ...????
+Eric Vialla no we don't but would be fun to add one :-) Cheers Stew and Zaya
How about electric motors?
+edward wiebe would love to go full electric. But the cost for off-the-shelf with LiPO's is very high. Say US$30K for our boat (pretty easily driven hulls too!) . Waiting for the technology to come down in price! Cheers, Stew
Did You build this cat?
no he didnt
No. We bought her from the fellow who did build her. In Sth Africa. She was just 18 months old. Plans are available on the Wharram website.
7 knots?
Is that the vehicle at its fastest?
We have cracked 15 and others 19. we are conservative sailors, not racers :-)
Sailing Luckyfish I suppose if you’re not in a hurry to get to your destination it matters not.
God bless
A hydro-generator stops working, when the boat is not moving. I would go for 1 or even 2 wind generators... they stop working when there's no wind (boat is not moving to drive the hydro-gen., does that make any sense) ;-)
Hi Prof, No, that does not make any sense using the forms of logic I am comfortable with. :-)
On further thought, yes, it does make partial sense. The cutout power generation from the hydro is about 3 to 3.5 knots boatspeed which corresponds to about 5 to 6 knots true wind speed. Therefore, an efficient wind gen (or two) able to produce charge at that wind speed would have a slight edge over the hydro, in those conditions (which are very rare thankfully). However, the difference in the real world, for passage making, is significant and reversed. Cruising boats generally make passages with the wind aft of the beam whenever possible. That reduces the apparent wind speed felt by the wind gen and makes them less efficient. Combine this with the superior power output from hydro e.g At just 5 knots of boat speed the hydro gen produces the same amount of power as a good quality wind generator in 18 knots of apparent wind. We rarely see 18 knots of apparent as the true wind speed would be greater than 25 knots. And in those winds our boatspeed could easily be generating 20 Amps + from the hydro. Thanks for stimulating some more thought about this, Cheers, Stew
Prof. Michael O. Zeee JCD ECS Don't forget that at anchor navigation electronics get turned off saving power. Especially for his catamaran, this is the way to go. In fact half as big would probably do the job. He will start every sunset with full batteries and if he generated half the power he uses at night he would be fine come sunup.
please put comments in Spanish because not all of us understand English well, the boys from Colombia
install a washing machine, a drier. a dish washer.. A larger freezer ...no enough power, what about induction stoves..
Free Energy costs a hell of a lot of money, apparently.
Haha, good one. Well, you are right, nothing is free of course but after the initial capital cost... its a ton of power for very little effort. Do you have a sailboat or thinking of getting one?
I've got several small boats, and I've got a Tiki 30 coming together slowly in a barn in WV, USA. I was thinking of putting a wind generator on it. I might do one of these hydros if I could build it myself and mount it in a sleek housing like that.
Cool. Really like the Tiki 26 and 30's. Awesome, go-anywhere boats. Yeah, the build is a long road but worth it in the end... WV to Caribbean isn't such a big leap :-)
No it isn't. Especially not when the 30 can be carted down I-95 to Miami on a pontoon trailer behind my truck. :)
Ya, brilliant to have all that on your doorstep. We are about to install a Rutland 1200 after a fair bit of looking at wind gennies. The location will be on top of the main mast... it makes the most practical solution in terms of minimising weight (no mounting pole on aft beam and guys etc) and wind aloft etc etc but still seems unconventional to do it this way. I am going with the practicalities and will worry about the aesthetics later. May not be an issue.
I am currently working on harnessing the power of farts for generating power. Waste not, want not.
I'm sure its been tried before!
You can find best solutions on Avasva website.
"Free" energy?? Not really. A hydro generator causes extra drag on your boat so you don't go quite as fast.
It is a TRADE OFF! Go a bit faster or produce some electric power... and store it.
VERY little is actually FREE! Even a wind generator is causing some drag on your boat.
Solar Panels would be the most FREE energy source.
please put comments in Spanish because not all of us understand English well, the boys from Colombia