krj wrote in news:XX_jf.41614$Y82.8182
@bignews4.bellsouth.net:

And where, on a 37' sail boat, am I going to mount a generator with
17'
blades and an 8.5' tail?
krj



Same place as you're going to mount 5KW of solar panels....NOT.

But, alas, how about doubling the number of blades that are shorter but
produce the same HP? It's run faster, which makes little difference when
you're simply spinning magnets....up to the point where centrifugal force
spins them off, of course. Going faster means you'll need less poles, I
suppose.

Their design isn't cast in concrete. If you read the article, you'll
find one they made for the kids in school powered by one hamster in his
wheel lighting his home quite nicely. Every time they make a new one,
it's all different and is finalized the old-fashioned
way...experimentation until it works. A boat genset would be similarly
designed.

What about stealing Jacques Cousteau's design and driving this flat
alternator with a vertically spinning cylinder on the stern as high as
the mast? For as much power as comes off the average mizzen on a
cruising ketch, I'd be tempted to say to hell with the mizzen and put
this vertically spinning powerplant right where the mizzen mast base used
to be.

Then, there's the possibility of a water-driven alternator like these
boys make on a long shaft behind the stern. Large, slow-turning prop
trading boat speed for DC power turning at very low RPM on this type of
homebrew alternator sounds also like a valid idea.

No imagination?? That would be sad, indeed.