Wind Generators

[Endora]

I am thinking of fitting a wind generator to my 8 metre catamaran. The obvious runners are the Rutland 503 or its larger sister which, I think, is the 905. As the boat is fairly small size indicates the smaller one would be more appropriate. Has anyone any experience of these? Or any other type available in UK? We live aboard for long periods in summer and main battery drain will be cabin lights and cool box. Lights are strips and cool box is a Coleman which appears to draw 4.5 amps. Appreciate no small wind generator is likely to keep up with that but I could use it for short periods - say an hour a day. My electrical gizmos are minimal - GPS and radio (seldom used). I motor a fair bit (anyone with a Catalac does!)

[Nick]

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We have an Aerogen4 which was on the boat when we got it. It keeps up with everything including night sails if it is reasonably breezy. (We don't have a fridge tho')

[Daveanmucker]

I fitted an Aerogen 4 a year or two ago and its been a superb bit o kit, I found that sailing single handed a lot and using the auto helm a bit, that I sometimes had to leave it off when sailing a longish passage, they do use a bit of juice especially on a heavy helm like a Victoria.

The Aerogen solved this problem.

[sahona]

Had an aquagen 100 with wind kit and found it lacking, 8 amps max.
These and other smaller windmills are OK if you live in the roaring 40s but most of us try to choose quiet anchorages, so you will get less amps for less time.
Get the most powerful you can give boat-room to.

[theguerns]

I have just been setting up a sadler 29 for a customer for a circumnav who wanted to be independant so have fitted a D400 wind generater and on test have been very impresed with the results. All lighting is LED waco 25lt fridge freezer running at -18degs chartplotter Radar and pilot no problems only drawback price everything fitted about £1200 but as I say all the time you get what you pay for

[Sam_steele]

We have a duogen d400. They are expensive I think all in with regulator, it was £1000, but very good. Much quieter than the AirX marine we had before, which always sounded like we had an helicopter landing. the d400 starts generating at about 6 knots of wind and at 15 knots we get about 3.5 amps. We fitted it before we sailed round britain 2 years ago and it did mean that we were electricial independant and could anchor quite a bit (and we have a fridge).