‘Wattsson’, a Watt & Sea 600 watt hydro generator, has become part of the Isbjorn (our Swan 48) family. He joins ‘R2-D2’, our autopilot, as simultaneously our most and least favourite pieces of gear on the boat.
We sail Isbjorn 10,000 miles a year, and Wattsson happily hums along, day and night, providing all of our electrical needs at sea and then some. However, it’s taken a full year and nearly $10,000 to finally work out the kinks, but I still think he is worth it…to us. Here’s why, and why he might not be worth it to you.
For about half the cost of the Watt and Sea you can buy a Duo- Gen from Eclectic Energy in the UK. It produces 6-8 amps at 5-7 knots in water mode and is a useful wind generator at anchor
Hi Ted,
I sailed across the Atlantic on a Saga 43 fitted with a DuoGen – it worked so poorly that the owner replaced it with a W&S for the return voyage. A case of the classic trying to do two things well and ended up doing both things poorly. If you’ve had luck with yours that’s great. I’m only speaking from my own experience, and the DuoGen can’t hold a candle to the W&S, especially on output.
There are other options too. Ampair makes a towable generator for a few hundred bucks, and I may be missing some others. Yves Gelinas made his own homemade towable generator in the early 1980s when he sailed around the world solo on his engineless Alberg 30 ‘Jean-du-Sud.’
-Andy
Hi Andy
We have crossed the Pacific from Canada and made several trips from New Zealand to the Islands and Duogen has been very good. Less output than the WS but still sufficient to power everything in conjunction with our solar panels.
Hi Ted, happy to hear that, good on you!
Andy
Thanks for the honest review of the Wattsson,s real life capabilities and shortcomings. Many reviews fail to look at the full picture for a host of reasons.
Thanks Dave, appreciate the compliments!
Hi Andy
a very thorough and fair review of the Watt and Sea. Having used a couple (on a Boreal 47 and a 55) I’d add a few comments.
The standard bracket is the weak spot. The custom bracket Boreal fabricate is massive and works well, although the vertical pin needs to be lubricated to keep it quiet and easy to remove. If W & S have now come up with a custom bracket, then that has to be a good thing.
I’ve experienced that rumbling and vibration from the unit and put it down to bearings (worryingly), and I’ve heard complaints of the same from other users – there has to be some way to identify what the problem is and for W & S to cure it, as it is (in my view) too frequent an issue for comfort.
As an aside, anyone considering one for these units alongside a servo pendulum vane gear where the auxiliary rudder swings from side to side will have their work cut out to come up with a solution to stop the rudder and the W & S prop possibly meeting with disastrous results! They move around far more than I had expected. It is just possible to set up the Windpilot Pacific on a Boreal and the W & S to work at the same time – but it’s close. The vane gear can be angled slightly to make the necessary clearance without compromising the efficiency of the gear, but if a fix has to be made by altering the bracket of the W & S, then as you’ve identified, the work will need to be done to a very high standard indeed.
And I totally agree with your summation – a great thing to have on a long distance voyaging boat, but not for coastal cruising.
Best wishes
Colin
Hi Colin,
There’s two kinds of ‘rumbling’ I’ve experienced – the first, and less concerning, is when the batteries are fully topped up and the W&S is essentially ‘freewheeling.’ It’s an ominous noise, but according to everyone I’ve spoken to, unavoidable and not bad for the unit. So when we get to fully topped batteries, we either take up the W&S, or more likely, just run the watermaker a bunch to use the electricity! Problem solved.
The second was what I describe on our last day offshore en route to Horta. It was a terrible vibration, and the batteries were NOT fully topped up, so it was different. It was still putting out amps, but obviously something was wrong. I’m sending that one back to W&S, it’s still under warranty, so I’ll report back if I get an answer from them what it was all about.
Andy
I bought a tow generator from Hamilton Ferris while in New Zealand in 1994. I sailed
SEA BEAR ( 39 ft steel cutter) singlehanded to Rio de Janiro, via Drake’s Passage, on my way to Maine. I only Started the engine once a week to be sure it would still run. The tow generator provided all the power I needed ( lights, radar, radio, no fridge) and I only towed it a few hours a day. Still have it and use it on passages. Simple and pretty inexpensive.
That’s great Peter! I’m envious of your small and simple boat – I miss our Arcturus a lot, especially when dealing with this expensive stuff! But alas, I need a bigger boat to run the business, and need a watermaker to keep the crew going, and subsequently need a way to make power! Good on you for keeping it simple!
Hi
We bought the 300W short leg version for our 31ft boat. The size of the propeller and unit is dependent on the boat one has. The 600W unit would have been nonsense for our boat since we never reach enough speed to use the upper 300W. The choice of propeller size and unit wattage should be made based on average passage speed. There are output curves on the W&S homepage.
We had to mount our unit eccentric on the starboard side to keep it away from the wind vane. Initially I regretted buying the short leg unit because the propeller sometimes breaks the surface on starboard tack. This turned out to be an advantage when we came into sea areas with much seaweed because the propeller rids itself of seaweed when breaking the surface (most of the time).
For anybody buying two units I’d recommend to buy two units with short legs and mount them on both sides of the transom. Mount them removable with a plug. If any unit fails the good one can be moved to the lee side. This would be the perfect solution for me that also leaves space for the windvane. The stress on the mounting will be considerably less for the short leg unit too. (I find the mounting on the picture still does not look very solid.)
The W&S-regulator doubles as a MPPT solar regulator. I bought 300W of portable solar panels that I use at anchor (en.sunware.solar/produkte/module_textil_tx). This is enough for our energy needs including refrigeration and watermaking. Portable panels are superior to fixed mounted ones since they can be moved around on deck and out of the shadows. This is even more important in the arctic where solar panels need to be angled towards the sun to be effective. Unlike almost everybody else we do not have a windgenerator and never missed it.
W&S have a good service and they are one of few French companies that deliver a comprehensible manual in languages other than French (most others seem to use google translate or worse).
In 14 month of fulltime cruising we never started the engine for charging and on our first Atlantic crossing we did not start the engine at all.
We also experienced the rumbling sound that Colin mentions. A technician from W&S replaced our generator unit witch solved the problem – for about 5 days. Thereafter we just left it. It does not impair energy production. The technician said he wanted our old unit to find out what causes the sound.
Never ever angle the pendulum rudder on your Windpilot!!! Peter from Windpilot told me this is a big mistake. Doing so produces to much stress on the mechanics and will damage the system (I did it and it broke my windvane). Windpilot produces different extensions for the mounting. Buy one that is long enough to keep the pendulum rudder vertical and away form the Hydrogenerator.
Hi Enno,
Good point about the 300W unit for slower boats that would never get the added 300W out of it anyway. I’m still not sure it’s worth the expense, but if you’ve had luck with it, that’s excellent. I have no comment on the wind pilot, as I have no experience with that particular gear.
I also have similar good things to say about W&S and their manuals and service, for the most part.