DuoGen vs Towed Impeller Generators

Many yachtsmen consider towed water generators too much trouble, even though this is an efficient way to get a lot of energy out of the wind.
These are some of the comments made by the skippers who do use them.
All quotations have been taken from the ARC Survey Report featured in Yachting World magazine, July2002.

Quotation about towed impeller		How DuoGen is different
"Good except the rope kept getting round the propeller as it jumped, surfing down waves." "... line was knotting up in a big way."		This can't happen with DuoGen water mode, because it doesn't rely on towing a heavy impeller on 30 metres of rope, and operates in the top 50 cms of water, within the same wave as the yacht.
"The towing log-propeller disappeared in the water. We presume it was eaten by a shark!"		Again, this is very unlikely to happen with with DuoGen water mode, for the reasons given above, unless you encounter a particularly bold shark!
"... the towing line is prone to snarl up when being paid out or taken in, inclined to jump out of the water.."			This is not a problem with DuoGen (see above). You can deploy the water mode in seconds, by lowering the unit into the water while holding the recovery lanyard. Recovery is just as simple.
"... the drag slows a boat."			DuoGen causes 30% less drag, amp for amp, than alternative machines with long tow ropes.
Water impellers are "generally ... used on mid-range boats of 40ft and under, as the power generated is inevitably a smaller percentage of the requirements the larger the yacht."		We believe that every little helps, and that the best way to keep your batteries charged is to use a variety of methods, especially if you have a large energy requirement. Having said this, DuoGen has the advantage over the alternative machines because the water mode carries on generating power at the higher speeds of which larger yachts are capable. We have measured an output of 20 amps at 9 knots.