The Nightmare Project

  I had waited until being out here a while and having a chance to look at and listen to many different brands of wind generator before deciding on which, if any, to get for Alannastar.  After observing an extremely quiet model on a boat at Soper's hole and then speaking with the owner, I decided to order an Eclectic Energy D-400.  They are known as the quietest wind gen out here, as well as being well made and reliable.  (And they are priced accordingly.)  I ordered it from the States, it came in to General Delivery on St John OK, and then I was off to St Thomas to have a mount fabricated.  After looking at the existing radar mast, which was very flimsily mounted, and at the difficulty of accessing the underside of the deck through the one piece headliner on this boat, the mechanic/fabricator I was working with suggested making an arch which would mount to the davits.  This would eliminate the radar mast, since we would move the radar over to the new arch.  I told him to go for it, and then had to hang around for more than a week, since, of course, the project took longer and cost more than was estimated.  Well, we finally got everything up and running, but it was soon obvious that the unit was making a clunking sound which transmitted through the hull and into the aft cabin.  It was so annoying that I had to secure the wind mill at night, just so we could sleep.  After a week of fruitless trouble shooting based on e-mail exchanges with the dealer, importer, and manufacturer, we finally agreed that the unit itself must be defective. So, they agreed to ship me a replacement unit and even pay for the return shipping on the defective one.

   Well, that finally came in, and I was ready to bring the boat back into a slip to make the exchange, but when I tested the replacement unit by hand spinning the shaft and putting my ear to the housing - it made the same clunking sound.  A call to England was quickly returned by the engineer/owner of the company, and he agreed to immediately ship me yet another replacement, directly from England, via DHL Express, two day delivery.  I certainly can't complain about THAT service!  So, a week later, after the Easter holidays here, I go into the marina, have an exciting time trying to back the boat into a slip in a strong cross wind, and get ready to replace the original with the new, new unit.  Unfortunately, there is just one more problem - the collar on the unit fit so tightly into the pipe that we were absolutely unable to remove it. We tried prying, pounding, twisting, and jacking, but after two solid hours of frustration, we were forced to cut three inches off  the existing pipe - fortunately, there was enough extra clearance above the arch to allow this. The problem stemmed from having to use an 1.5" pipe for the installation, and get the collar machined down to fit (it was sized for a 42mm pipe).  Obviously, it had fit too tightly, but the mechanic turned more off of it, and now it fits just right.  So, we dropped in the new unit - and NO MORE THUMPING!!!  Finally, my wind mill is installed.  And yes, it is quiet.

  So, how well does it work?  Well, when the wind blows at 10 to 15 kts, which is typical around here,  it and my little 28 watt rollable solar panel meet about half of my energy needs, meaning that I only have to run the diesel gen every other day.  When it blows 15 to 20 kts, the wind gen meets all of the boats electric demands.  Here's a picture of the new arch and installation.  After bumping my head a couple of times on the "chin up" bar, I have now learned to duck slightly when getting on the swim ladder.  If you look through some of the older pictures on the blog, you'll see the radar mast which is now gone from the aft deck.