An Amel-owner told me that using the "Trinkette", or staysail, on a SM gains 5-6 degrees of upwind performance.  Can anyone verify this claim?

Paul C.

still looking

 

Thomas,

There should be a test lever to raise the float to set off the alarm to test it.

As to moving the switch, remember, offshore you are rocking and rolling often, so if you move the alarm, you may be hearing it more often then you'd like. I've had mine go off a few times, due to various issues, in various conditions, and never felt the water level compromised any pumps or other engine room components. 

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 07:18 PM, 'S/V Garulfo' svgarulfo@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

Hi all,

Today's maintenance task was testing the bilge alarm. We had heard recently of at least one 54 owner who found out the hard way it didn't work. So it was high on the list and, sure enough, the test failed. It turned out the buzzer was dead and the lamp burnt within 5s. The floater trigger worked ok. 

So we replaced the light bulb and the buzzer. We heard the original buzzer in a friend's SM2K and the new one and they are equally loud. 

Which made me think I'd like to add a 3 way switch to test/silence it, as it would be pretty counterproductive/unsettling to have the siren scream while troubleshooting why you're sinking. 

I also thought the position of the floater trigger in the bilge to be rather high. A few components (pumps, engine, c drive) would have their feet wet before it triggers. So thinking of relocating it lower in the sump, while not compromising access/maintenability.

Any thoughts?

Test your testers!

Fair winds 

Thomas 

GARULFO

A54 #122

Saint Martin, FWI

 

Thomas,

There should be a test lever to raise the float to set off the alarm to test it.

As to moving the switch, remember, offshore you are rocking and rolling often, so if you move the alarm, you may be hearing it more often then you'd like. I've had mine go off a few times, due to various issues, in various conditions, and never felt the water level compromised any pumps or other engine room components. 

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 07:18 PM, 'S/V Garulfo' svgarulfo@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

Hi all,

Today's maintenance task was testing the bilge alarm. We had heard recently of at least one 54 owner who found out the hard way it didn't work. So it was high on the list and, sure enough, the test failed. It turned out the buzzer was dead and the lamp burnt within 5s. The floater trigger worked ok. 

So we replaced the light bulb and the buzzer. We heard the original buzzer in a friend's SM2K and the new one and they are equally loud. 

Which made me think I'd like to add a 3 way switch to test/silence it, as it would be pretty counterproductive/unsettling to have the siren scream while troubleshooting why you're sinking. 

I also thought the position of the floater trigger in the bilge to be rather high. A few components (pumps, engine, c drive) would have their feet wet before it triggers. So thinking of relocating it lower in the sump, while not compromising access/maintenability.

Any thoughts?

Test your testers!

Fair winds 

Thomas 

GARULFO

A54 #122

Saint Martin, FWI

On 08 April 2018 at 13:56 "JEFFREY KRAUS jmkraus@opt online.net [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Will do.

I'm  surprised at any negative comments on the d400. I've only heard good things. 

I need to educate myself on the different components involved. what dealer did you use, and how was their support in helping on the install?

I thought Ocean Energy's people were extremely knowledgeable and helpful, however they don't offer any wind generating systems, only solar and hydro.

I'm skeptical on the hydro, due to my thoughts previously expressed..

Thanks for answering my questions.

Best Regards,

Jeff

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 08:21 PM, Danny and Yvonne SIMMS simms@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

 

Hi Jeff,

Weight: Superwind 11.5 kg D 400 17 kg or 33% heavier. At the top of a mast that is significant. Output. Superwind is rated for 350 watts and the D400 400 watts. I have been happy with the output from my Superwind, I have read on the forum an owners scathing comments about the lack of out put from a D400. Perhaps we had different expectations. As I said before. Not much output below 10 knots apparent, 15 knots quite good, 20 knots plus, terrific. When the batteries are full the Superwind diverts to two heater type elements to absorb the surplus, means you don't have to monitor the battery status. Its whole design is aimed to independent long term operation. The new 353 model is even more robust designed to withstand ice falls. The output is the same. I saw no reason to change. Google them, they have a good web site.

Regards

Danny

On 08 April 2018 at 10:08 "JEFFREY KRAUS jmkraus@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Danny,

It helps a lot. The rail mounting was recommended by someone else, who contacted me directly. Never thought of that, and it makes a lot of sense. Outside the rail wiring isn't a major asthetically disturbing concept. 

I think that the wiring through the locker is also a good idea.

What is the weight comparison between the super wind and the d400? Any idea?

What are the output specs comparatively? Any idea?

A plate to mount the wind generator on top of the mizzen attaching it to the existing extruding plate sounds like an excellent option.  

When I return to the boat later this month, I'm going to envision the options and get a better feel for the actual deployment. 

I greatly appreciate your feedback.

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14


On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 03:44 PM, Danny and Yvonne SIMMS simms@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

 

Hi Jeff, The top of the Mizzen has a flat plate on it that extends beyond the extrusion. When we bought Ocean Pearl it had a hole at each corner. We made the mast for the wind generator with a matching plate that we bolted to the top of the mast with a strip of 3mm thick rubber between the two plates. Any wind generator you mount on the top of the mizzen must not need servicing or physical stopping, for obvious reasons. It must be vibration free, some will make the mizzen mast sing, and it must be genuinely quiet.. The D400 was one I looked at closely when we bought ours at the Annapolis boat show. We went around and around looking at all the options. The D400 is very bulky and heavy and I didn't like its clumsy swing to the side feathering in strong winds which is achieved by having a very short tail

Our wind generator is German made Super Wind. It is designed for remote locations and needs no service. I described its feathering and silence in my previous. After 9 years with no need for service at any time the bearings were worn and we replaced it this year. The technology remains the same. I contacted the company in Germany and they could not have been more helpful. We bought the replacement unit from and agent in New Zealand. I posted photos of the mast and month or two back while it was off for the change. Sadly I recently deleted them from my camera.

Solar panels. We have two 130 watt 12 volt panels linked together to give 24 volts, hence just 130 watts. We got them at Island Water world in St Maarten and they provided a clamp system that we used to attach them to the port side rail just aft of the cockpit, about 1/3 in 2/3 out if you get my meaning.Thy sit happily there and are easy to swing up out of harms way when docking.  Because I thought this may be a temporary site I surface ran the wiring down a staunchon across the deck, up and over the coaming and into the big cockpit locker and from there to the batteries via appropriate fuses and a controller. It has worked so well and is so unobtrusive we have left them there for 9 years. A cheap as chips solution and added benefit, works well. The surface mounted wiring is just not noticed so I've left that too I have in the past posted photos.

Hope this helps

Regards

Danny

. 

On 08 April 2018 at 00:33 "JEFFREY KRAUS jmkraus@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Danny,

A couple questions if you don't mind.

How did you mount the wind generator? What type is it? Have you heard of the d400, and any thoughts on it? How large, and where did you mount your solar panels?  9 years is a long time, and I have to assume that improvements have been made on the technology of both the wind and solar components. With that said, you seem to have a great combination that have got the job done with flying colors! That is amazing battery life, and speaks to an opitimal generating efficiency. Bravo!

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 05:19 AM, simms simms@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

 

Hi Paul. I'll repeat my thoughts from past posts. We have had for 9 years a super wind generator on top of the mizzen.  mast. There is no vibration and no noise. It cannot be heard.. It has mechanially auto feathering blades and a stop switch which because of the auto feathering never needs to be used in strong winds. It never has to be used because of the sensibilities of night wstch crew or marins neighbours because you cant hear it.

I agree. Under 10 knots apparent wind the charge is slight. 15 knots good. 20 knots plus terrific. We only have 130 watts solar plus the 350 watt wind generator. I like having my bases covered. Sunny and windless ok. Windy and cloudy. Ok. Windy and sunny. Wow. Hiwever it was never my desire to be able to run all my high draw systems on these secondary chargers. I did not want to cross oceeans relying on diesel engines for my electrcity. Mid ocean storms can go for days with heavy cloud cover. Hence the wind gen. If i lost diesel generation i wanted to be able to keep my esential eletronics going. I could live without air con etc. As an aside. In my experience electric auto helms are not big current users. Radar is as are inverters. Auto helms should not be set too finely. A little bit of wandering does no harm and use a lot less juice.

Lastly I attribute the 8 years I got from.my flooded lead acid batteries to the combination of wind generator and solar. I thrashed them at times but mostly that constant charge looked after them

Regards

Danny

AM 299

Ocean Pearl

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: "'Mark Erdos' mcerdos@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...>

Date: 7/04/18 01:38 (GMT+12:00)

To: amelyachtowners@...

Subject: RE: [Amel Yacht Owners] Wind or Water generator

 

 

Paul,

 

We have an Air Breeze generator.. It is okay, not great.

 

It is one of the quietest systems on the market but can still be a little annoying. One of the best features is it can be turned off and locked with an installed switch. This is also a big plus when at dock..

 

When on the hook, we turn it on at night. It will add enough charge to the batteries (15+ knts) that we do not have to start the genset in the morning. Solar usually picks up enough after 10am. We run all three refrigeration units, instruments (anchor alarm) and fans at night. During the day, it is off as we have ample solar. In the Caribbean, I can count on one hand the days where our solar set up has not been adequate to charge the batteries and offset our power needs due to cloudy conditions.

 

On overnight passages, it will be on at night unless the person on watch gets tired of hearing it. No matter what, we always seem to have to run the genset for about a hour at night when sailing due to instruments, radar and auto-pilot etc. The wind generator doesn’t produce enough to offset this usage, even in stronger winds.

 

Hope this helps confirm your hesitation on a wind generator.

 

 

With best regards,

 

Mark

 

Skipper

Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275

Currently cruising - Guadeloupe

www.creampuff.us

 

From: amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 6:32 AM
To: amelyachtowners@...
Subject: [Amel Yacht Owners] Wind or Water generator

 

 

We have 850 watt of solar power that covers our need when at anchor, even a partly cloudy day. But during passage at night we need to run the Genset something that take away some of the joy of sailing.

I have been thinking of installing a wind generator as we are going to spend a few seasons in the Caribbean where it is not uncommon with strong wind and cloud days. But hopefully we will also cross the Pacific and I assume more or less following wind and the wind generator will not contribute very much.

Does anyone of you out there have any experience with the Watt and Sea or the Swi-Tec hydro generators. Or any other brand? Pros and cons with hydro generators? For you who have both Hydro and Water generators what would be your first choice?

 

Paul on S/Y Kerpa SM#259

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 08 April 2018 at 10:08 "JEFFREY KRAUS jmkraus@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Danny,

It helps a lot. The rail mounting was recommended by someone else, who contacted me directly. Never thought of that, and it makes a lot of sense. Outside the rail wiring isn't a major asthetically disturbing concept. 

I think that the wiring through the locker is also a good idea.

What is the weight comparison between the super wind and the d400? Any idea?

What are the output specs comparatively? Any idea?

A plate to mount the wind generator on top of the mizzen attaching it to the existing extruding plate sounds like an excellent option.  

When I return to the boat later this month, I'm going to envision the options and get a better feel for the actual deployment. 

I greatly appreciate your feedback.

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14


On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 03:44 PM, Danny and Yvonne SIMMS simms@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

 

Hi Jeff, The top of the Mizzen has a flat plate on it that extends beyond the extrusion. When we bought Ocean Pearl it had a hole at each corner. We made the mast for the wind generator with a matching plate that we bolted to the top of the mast with a strip of 3mm thick rubber between the two plates. Any wind generator you mount on the top of the mizzen must not need servicing or physical stopping, for obvious reasons. It must be vibration free, some will make the mizzen mast sing, and it must be genuinely quiet.. The D400 was one I looked at closely when we bought ours at the Annapolis boat show. We went around and around looking at all the options. The D400 is very bulky and heavy and I didn't like its clumsy swing to the side feathering in strong winds which is achieved by having a very short tail

Our wind generator is German made Super Wind. It is designed for remote locations and needs no service. I described its feathering and silence in my previous. After 9 years with no need for service at any time the bearings were worn and we replaced it this year. The technology remains the same. I contacted the company in Germany and they could not have been more helpful. We bought the replacement unit from and agent in New Zealand. I posted photos of the mast and month or two back while it was off for the change. Sadly I recently deleted them from my camera.

Solar panels. We have two 130 watt 12 volt panels linked together to give 24 volts, hence just 130 watts. We got them at Island Water world in St Maarten and they provided a clamp system that we used to attach them to the port side rail just aft of the cockpit, about 1/3 in 2/3 out if you get my meaning.Thy sit happily there and are easy to swing up out of harms way when docking.  Because I thought this may be a temporary site I surface ran the wiring down a staunchon across the deck, up and over the coaming and into the big cockpit locker and from there to the batteries via appropriate fuses and a controller. It has worked so well and is so unobtrusive we have left them there for 9 years. A cheap as chips solution and added benefit, works well. The surface mounted wiring is just not noticed so I've left that too I have in the past posted photos.

Hope this helps

Regards

Danny

. 

On 08 April 2018 at 00:33 "JEFFREY KRAUS jmkraus@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Danny,

A couple questions if you don't mind.

How did you mount the wind generator? What type is it? Have you heard of the d400, and any thoughts on it? How large, and where did you mount your solar panels?  9 years is a long time, and I have to assume that improvements have been made on the technology of both the wind and solar components. With that said, you seem to have a great combination that have got the job done with flying colors! That is amazing battery life, and speaks to an opitimal generating efficiency. Bravo!

Best Regards,

Jeff Spirit Amel 54 #14

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 05:19 AM, simms simms@... [amelyachtowners] wrote:

 

 

Hi Paul. I'll repeat my thoughts from past posts. We have had for 9 years a super wind generator on top of the mizzen.  mast. There is no vibration and no noise. It cannot be heard. It has mechanially auto feathering blades and a stop switch which because of the auto feathering never needs to be used in strong winds. It never has to be used because of the sensibilities of night wstch crew or marins neighbours because you cant hear it.

I agree. Under 10 knots apparent wind the charge is slight. 15 knots good. 20 knots plus terrific. We only have 130 watts solar plus the 350 watt wind generator. I like having my bases covered. Sunny and windless ok. Windy and cloudy. Ok. Windy and sunny. Wow. Hiwever it was never my desire to be able to run all my high draw systems on these secondary chargers. I did not want to cross oceeans relying on diesel engines for my electrcity. Mid ocean storms can go for days with heavy cloud cover. Hence the wind gen. If i lost diesel generation i wanted to be able to keep my esential eletronics going. I could live without air con etc. As an aside. In my experience electric auto helms are not big current users. Radar is as are inverters. Auto helms should not be set too finely. A little bit of wandering does no harm and use a lot less juice.

Lastly I attribute the 8 years I got from.my flooded lead acid batteries to the combination of wind generator and solar. I thrashed them at times but mostly that constant charge looked after them

Regards

Danny

AM 299

Ocean Pearl

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: "'Mark Erdos' mcerdos@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...>

Date: 7/04/18 01:38 (GMT+12:00)

To: amelyachtowners@...

Subject: RE: [Amel Yacht Owners] Wind or Water generator

 

 

Paul,

 

We have an Air Breeze generator. It is okay, not great.

 

It is one of the quietest systems on the market but can still be a little annoying. One of the best features is it can be turned off and locked with an installed switch. This is also a big plus when at dock..

 

When on the hook, we turn it on at night. It will add enough charge to the batteries (15+ knts) that we do not have to start the genset in the morning. Solar usually picks up enough after 10am. We run all three refrigeration units, instruments (anchor alarm) and fans at night. During the day, it is off as we have ample solar. In the Caribbean, I can count on one hand the days where our solar set up has not been adequate to charge the batteries and offset our power needs due to cloudy conditions.

 

On overnight passages, it will be on at night unless the person on watch gets tired of hearing it. No matter what, we always seem to have to run the genset for about a hour at night when sailing due to instruments, radar and auto-pilot etc. The wind generator doesn’t produce enough to offset this usage, even in stronger winds.

 

Hope this helps confirm your hesitation on a wind generator.

 

 

With best regards,

 

Mark

 

Skipper

Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275

Currently cruising - Guadeloupe

www.creampuff.us

 

From: amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 6:32 AM
To: amelyachtowners@...
Subject: [Amel Yacht Owners] Wind or Water generator

 

 

We have 850 watt of solar power that covers our need when at anchor, even a partly cloudy day. But during passage at night we need to run the Genset something that take away some of the joy of sailing.

I have been thinking of installing a wind generator as we are going to spend a few seasons in the Caribbean where it is not uncommon with strong wind and cloud days. But hopefully we will also cross the Pacific and I assume more or less following wind and the wind generator will not contribute very much.

Does anyone of you out there have any experience with the Watt and Sea or the Swi-Tec hydro generators. Or any other brand? Pros and cons with hydro generators? For you who have both Hydro and Water generators what would be your first choice?

 

Paul on S/Y Kerpa SM#259