Ian,
Thanks ever so much for the helpful post. We are taking delivery
December 9 this year and had anticipated adding the Air Marine when
it was suddenly dropped from the options list. Your experience may
have been the reason for the change, as we all know how evolutionary
the SM concept is. The engineering you had to overcome is
impressive, but I hope applicable. Perhaps we may see the Air Marine
offered again but with a purpose-built masthead fitting for the
mizzen. We, too, are concerned about the SM's casual attitude with
KwH and were recently gifted with a custom rigging-hung generator.
It'll be interesting to see how this works out. The unit was
originally set up to put out 110V so it could be plugged in directly
to a (US) boat's power inlet. We'll need a transformer to allow us
to do the same with the Amel. Looking forward to your next post!
Regards,

Chuck Luecker

--- In amelyachtowners@y..., closereach <no_reply@y...> wrote:

Having lived on board my Super Maramu 2000 (299) the past 22

months,

mostly on the hook, and sailed 21,000+ nms, I decided to

investigate

putting a wind generator on the top of my mizzen mast. There are

not

ANY wind generators that will supply all the SM's electrical needs,
and research showed that the only two makes that would make any
significant contribution were the Air Marine 403 and the Kiss.
However, weight is a factor, and I chose the Air Marine 403 which

is

half the weight of the Kiss.

Because I did not wish to get the mizzen staysail halyard tangled

in

the blades, I decided to mount it on the very top of the mizzen

mast,

where it would be out of the way. Amel kindly supplied me with a

copy

of the mast top blueprint, and I had a stainless plate made up that
matches the mast top plate, and welded the support post to it with
suitable bracing. Note that if you wish to replace your mizzen
halyard with the wind generator in place, you will have to cut a

slot

in the plate to allow access to the sheaves.

The 403 worked well up there, even down wind, but the vibration

from

the unit caused an unbearable resonance in the mast, which made the
generators use at night, and even at certain RPM's during the day,
impossible to live with. However, after some 6 months of trying
various cures, I have come up with a solution that works well.

I discovered a company in England called AVA Limited that

specialize

in anti vibration mounts. Yes there are many on the market that
consist of a rubber block with a stud bonded to each end, but these
would not be suitable in case of failure. The AVA mounts are fail
safe as they have a bolt through the entire assembly. They are made
of die cast aluminium, so they do need spraying with zinc chromate
primer then a good quality marine paint before use. Also they have

a

two bolt flange bottom fitting which would make them difficult to

fit

to the area of the mast top flange that protrudes outside the

profile

of the mast.

I got around this by making up 4 aluminium pieces of 1/4" bar that
were tapped with three holes. Two holes take the short fixing bolts
from the bottom flange of each vibration mount, and into the centre
tapped hole I screwed down a bolt that would attach the whole unit

to

the mizzen mast flange. To make matters even better, I put a strip

of

1/4" rubber under each bar before bolting the vibration dampers

down,

sleeved the 10mm bolts with fuel tubing where they pass through the
bottom plate, and put a further piece of rubber under the washes of
the 4 bolts that attach the dampers. All bolts were locked with
Locktite 270 locking compound.

The wind generator is now never switched off, and is hardly
noticeable under sail at all, and makes but a faint singing noise

in

the aft cabin at night. I would point out though that Air Marine

are

again testing their Air-X model which will be considerably smoother
and quieter in operation. After much dialogue with Air Marine, they
have asked me to test an Air-X on my mizzen top. From what I have
seen so far, the new model will be worth waiting for. There are

some

RFI problems to be sorted out before I get the test model, but it
should not be long now. They have gone away from using blade

flexing

to limit the turbine's speed, and are now using more rigid and
quieter blades.

Of course, one wind generator will not solve the Super Maramu's
thirst for electrons! I have also fitted 2 Solarex 120W 24V solar
panels to the side rails just aft of the genoa car adjusters. The
combination of all three works well. Under sail in sunlight, I need
an apparent wind of 15 knots to equal the electrical demand, and at
night 24 knots (radar on). In the tropics, I now only need to run

the

generator once a day, usually in the evening. My only regret now is
that having such reduced generator time, I should have bought a
bigger capacity water maker!

I did leave Crusader in the Bahamas for 2 weeks on the anchor with
the freezer running but the fridge switched off, and returned to

find

the batteries fully charged. It's this freedom to leave the boat

for

sight seeing and visits home that got me interested in an

alternative

power supply.

AVA Ltd can be found at:

Unit 1, Monkton Park, Farnham Trading Estate, Farnham, Surrey, GU9
9PA, England
Tel: 01252-733040 Fax: 01252-722958

What you need are 4 x AL30 Specials-25NAT M10 Core Price 9.56

GB

Pounds each.

They are specials in that the top fixing bolt size is increased to
10mm as the original bolts on the AL30 units were a bit on the

light

side for the application.

Modifications to the bow thruster, hot water system, anchor wash

and

speaker systems will follow when I get a moment!

Good sailing

Ian Shepherd

Amel Super Maramu 2000 # 299 "Crusader"

Web Site www.bayc.org.uk/crusader
Email g4ljf@w...