Peter,
I don't think this idea makes any sense. I know that height is a concern for
the canal tunnels and anything mounted on the cabin roof is a bad thing. You
are correct most of these wind turbines make pathetic power, unless they are
quite large. Unless you can mount the larger unit on shore, you should stick
to solar arrays. Here is another thought however. You may consider mounting
the larger unit on a mast with a tabernacle. Then with the use of an "A"
frame you could raise and lower the unit to a height that will not endanger
passing traffic as desired. You would never be able to leave the unit up
when under way though or in heavy winds.
Steve

wrote in message
...
I live on a narrowboat - a 45 foot long, 6 foot wide steel boat on a
canal in England. I have a British Rutland 913 wind turbine and it
delivers a pathetic amount of power. So, looking for more, preferably
a Lot more, I looked at South West Windpower's Air Breeze and Whisper.

Now, they apparently sell a Lot of Air Breezes, so a Lot of
development has gone into it and it's state of the art - new rotors,
neodymium, etc, etc. And it's a real sensible choice. And it weighs
only 6 kg. I don't know how they do it. And it charges your
batteries. Great. No problems fitting that on the boat - right on
the roof, with tethers.

But the Whisper gives you an insane amount of power which you can use
not only to charge your batteries, but also to heat water.
Fascinating. It weighs 21 kg so I can lift it into positon. It is a
bit Big, but I think I can handle that. It just occurs to me that all
wind turbines I've seen on any boats are all about the same diameter -
around 1.2 meters/about 3 feet. The Whisper is 2.1 metres/ 7 feet
rotor diameter.

So, would it be foolish of me to get a Whisper which far outreaches
this tradition? If so, why? Yes, I know it will rock the boat a
bit. And people I know who know about these things tell me it Won't
capsize it! Will it?

Most grateful for your thoughts.

Peter Smith