Wind / Solar
THE near DEATH AND RE BIRTH
OF A
1979 HUNTER 37 CHERUBINI CUTTER
HUNTER 37 CUTTER
With space at a premium on these cockpits, I felt that the wind generator pole could serve several purposes. I looked into building an arch and storing these items on it, but I have not seen a good looking set up on an old cockpit. They are narrow and do not fit as well as on new wide hulls.
The original unit I purchased was a 400w GUDCRAFT unit. I modified the tail since it was too long. I made a smaller tail from aluminum plate. Painted the whole thing with white epoxy paint (appliance epoxy spray paint at lowes). Came with a small controller. Was a 12 volt unit. I had it running in no time but could never see a benefit from it. I wired it to the starter battery and did not see much charge from it. After 11 months, the axle bearing started to roar. When in the boat working, I could hear the bearing noise as the hull amplifies the noise. Also, it never got going very fast as the brake would kick in and stop it. Returned it under warranty and received a new head unit. Still not much to show for. Out it went.
This is the new unit installed Feb 2013. It is 300w and AC. I has a small controller with diodes to change the AC power into DC power. It is hooked up to the starter battery and it has kept it full for the past 2 months. It also spins super fast until the brake kicks in. I checked the voltage with my meter and it shows voltage up to 16 volts when wind is blowing at a decent clip. Much better results than with the first one. So far, I have not had the boat on shore power for two months. I am working every week end on it and using lights, music and fans. The wind turbine has kept the starter battery fully charged and the solar panels have always replenished the two 6volt batteries I use as house bank.
New unit Feb 2013
Pole
I made the pole out of 1 1/2" shed 40 aluminum. I made a base to be attached to the toe rail. The pole itself rest on a rubber bushing as to isolate it from the hull as much as possible. I welded a flat tab at rail height and used a split rail clamp to attach it to the rail. I had plenty of those, they are cheap and made the rail easily removable. However, there was still about 8 ft of pole unsupported above the rail, so I added some tabs and placed an outrigger to the rail and a cross rail to secure it to the radar pole. It makes for a sturdy unit and removes a lot of the pull on the stern rail. The wind generator just slips on top and the wires run inside. I have a hole on the base for the wire to exit. I painted it with left over Imron paint from the mast.
Solar
I have two square cross members that tie the two davits together and keeps the dinghy from swaying. I mounted the two 80 watt solar panels on it. I have yet to secure the wiring permanently but they are wired to the solar controller. On any day, it will be at 14.2 to 14 7 volts all day long. I have checked the two new 6 v golf cart batteries and they are always full. I can use the radio, 12v fan blowing over the gas heater, cabin lighting, phone and Ipad chargers and they seem to keep up with most of my use.
Two 80 watt solar panels from UL-Solar do a great job keeping the house batteries full.
This is the wind /solar panel. It is located where the original cut off switch panel was located. It has the low oil alarm installed on it since the original was so faint you could not hear it. I installed a new one that is loud. The Solar 30 controller takes care of the two panels and directs the charge to the house batteries. The watt meter handles the wind turbine and keeps track of voltage, watts and power produced. It is wired to the start up battery.
One inch square aluminum pipe cross members with 3x3 tabs on each end attache to 3x3 tabs on the davits with two 1/4 bolts on each one so the whole shebang stays square and solid.
