The transatlantic crossing of Christophe Mora with a Watt&Sea Hydrogenerator

Watt&Sea :Can you tell us more about the Watt&sea Hydrogenerator and why you choose this power source specifically ?

Christophe Mora : The Watt&Sea Hydrogenerator is the obvious solution because no other equipment offers such a performance. Moreover its reliability is excellent, low weight (8,2 kgs), compact (short version), quite easy installation (but could be upgraded) and slow drag...In my case (4 years around the world with a maximum of moorings), the Watt&sea hydro is obvious and its cost quickly amortized.

W&S : Was the Hydrogenerator the main or unique power source ?

CM : Concretely I have 2 sources of energy : the main one when sailing is of course the Watt&Sea Hydro used during long tacks and when the wind strengthens. I use it by 4 to 8 hours cycle if I already used 30 to 50A on the batteries. The second one is 2 folding solar canvas (2x60w) that I use with low wind and when moorings. With good sunshine conditions it produces maximum 7A, i.e enough to cover the boats current consumption. But with almost 200A of gel Tech Power Batteries I can anticipate by adjusting the consumption.

W&S : Does the hydro create a drag in the water ?Is it noisy ?After such a cruising, what are your observations ?

CM : About the energy production, from 4 knots the hydrogenerator totally covers my consumption; from 5 knots it charges my batteries; At 6 knots it largely covers the consumption if my Katadyn PS40E watermaker( 5A/h out of the total of 10A/h). Beyond the production is exponential : up to 20 A/h when surfing at 8 knots!

Otherwise, it produces a quiet sound which help me to control its operation.

The main disadvantage of the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator is that it does not work at anchor ! Unless there is a lot of current that can happen !

If you could sum-up the product in one sentence, what would it be?

The Watt & Sea hydrogenerator completely discharge the skipper from energy concerns on board. This allows him to fully appreciate its navigations and to focus his attention and energy on the security aspect of the navigation : leaving on the radio to receive AIS and know the cargo route is no more a problem ...

Watt & Sea: Thank you Christophe for this testimony. You can follow his adventures on his blog: http://www.intothewind.fr/