Duogen Wind/water generators

[Karlheinz]

I really like the concept but hate the price. Does anyone have any "extended" experience with these units? I understand they're only about a year out of production so I wonder how well they are holding up?

The idea of being to generate power either at anchor or underway is very attractive.

karlheinz

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[pwfl]

Not sure if Duogen is a make - Ampair & LVM also make towed generators, that you can also attach blades to for wind generation.

we have been using an ampair one for some fairly extended voyaging over the last 2 years & I would make the following points.

1) in towed generator mode, they will knock about 1/2 knot off your speed. Not much, but when you`ve got 1000 miles to go, you chuck it in & you see you ETE on your GPS go up by a day & a half, you might find you care more about that 1/2 knot than you thought (but maybe you`ve got a fast boat).

2) the ampair one we`ve got doesn`t really start working until 3 knots, which is when you really don`t want to lose that 1/2 knot. In practice we don`t really use it until we`re doing 4.5 knots +.

3) we have a "hoist in the rigging" kit for wind mode, which does actually take a bit of time to get it all up & running, so we only actually tend to use it when we think we`re going to be spending quite a few days somewhere. This is compounded by the fact that we are a small boat, & we can`t really keep the blade assembly already assembled - we have to keep it in it`s component pieces for stowage purposes. You can also get a pole mount kit, which would probably cut down on some of the time it takes to rig.

4) In wind generator mode, the ampair doesn`t start producing until 10 kts & not really anything particularly useful until 15 +. Look at their (official) output curves, & they might seem alright, but you might be surprised how infrequently you get those kinds of winds in anchorages (which we generally choose for their shelter).

The whole logic for getting one of these, is that for trade wind sailing, you`re running, & therefore have a low relative wind speed.

One possible answer that I have recently come across, could be a wind generator by a company called Kiss Marine in Trinidad (also known as DougBuggers, I believe). Look at their output curves - you`re talking 5 amps at 10 knots, which would probably take nearer 30 kts of wind for our ampair to do that.

Not only that, but at slightly higher wind speeds, I think you can get up to 15, 20 amps even.

I think 1 permanently mounted unit, that can produce some power at low wind speeds , & a lot of power at any greater wind speeds to make up for it, seems like the best solution to me.

There are other high output wind generators (AirMarine - very noisy pointy blades, extreme nuisance & WindBugger - American), but I`m not sure what their low wind speed output is like.

Another wind generator, which we always, always see spinning, in the slightest of breezes, is the Rutland, but i don`t think they`re particularly high output though. Also those horizontally spinning ones (Forgen, I think) always seem to be whizzing round when you can hardly feel a breeze.

Hope that`s some help.

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