How to produce electricity, as well as having energy efficient appliances, is always a hot topic amongst cruisers. We've been asked to say a bit about our approach.
Many boats have a fossil-fuel based generator, but we got rid of the old petrol Suzuki we had and never replaced it. This is partly green snobbery, but also meanness. We'd love a diesel generator but they're very expensive. Petrol ones are noisy and unpleasant.
We have three solar panels, one large one on a pole across the davits and two flexibles. These live on the sprayhood normally, but when at anchor for long we move them around for the best sun.
The mizzen sports an elderly Rutland wind-generator, which is a good generator in low breeze but makes the mizzen mast shake and sounds like a low-flying helicopter in anything above a F4. At the moment we have 2 new blades to install but are wondering whether to take it off completely and instead buy two additional solar panels, to mount each side of the cockpit on our steel rails. And possibly even a mizzen staysail, which would not be safe to use with the generator where it is.
At anchor, we are also glad to use our ampair 100. This small generator can either be towed, or put up in the rigging. Hoisted on lines, it makes little vibration and produces power in 6knots plus of breeze. There are undoubtedly wind gennies with better output but they often make a dreadful hissing noise (we call them kinky as they sound like whips). We find the dual mode and flexibility of the ampair suits us fine. On a breezy, sunny day we easily charge at 10aH plus. Though the cruising community is split on the issue, we like having both forms of power available and today (windy and pouring with rain) we're generating well without relying on a generator or the engine.
The picture above shows the ampair hoisted. The picture gallery, in addition to the solars, tries to show how we hoist it. We put the inner forestay out, and then run a snatchblock up it, using a spinnaker halyard. The red line is the downhaul. The other spinnaker halyard runs through the snatchblock and attaches to the top of the wind genny. It is absolutely crucial that the blades are above head height, and also cannot reach other lines at all.
The lower arm of the genny has three lines acting as guys (two round the pulpit to forward cleats and one back to the mast). The blade at the back has a long, light piece of line attached which we can hold to pull the propeller away from the wind if we need to. The blue wire is the power cord which plugs in to a socket on deck.
To stow it, you take off the blades and the tail, and if you wish to the two legs top and bottom. Then it all fits in a shopping bag. The heaviest bit is the central generator itself, and the bulkiest is the ropes we use as guys. The blade itself is easy to deal with, being dead flat. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes to set it up, so we only bother if we will be in one place for several days, and otherwise we rely on the solars and the charge we will get from the engine while anchoring and getting the sails up.
It sounds very complicated but it's simple enough once you have it worked out.