2018 Husick Award winner

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The winner of the 2018 Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award is the new electrical generating system from Integrel/Triskel Marine in the U.K. The Integrel system (www.integrelmarine.com) is a different approach to using a high-output alternator, allied with computer control in a separate brain box, to make use of the largely untapped “spare” power in a sailboat’s auxiliary engine power curve. According to co-inventor and marine systems expert Nigel Calder, “This is way more than a high-output alternator, and significantly more efficient than most. The controller combines the functions of a traditional voltage regulator with all kinds of other ‘smarts’ and abuse tolerance.”

 

The Integrel system being put through its paces at the lab in the U.K. Different versions of the generating device are being tested on Volvo Penta and Yanmar engines.

Courtesy Integrel/Triskel Marine

The result is that the system allows voyagers to replace their gensets with the Integrel system as, according to system stats, it can generate up to 9 kilowatts of electrical power, produce fuel savings of 25 percent compared to using a stand-alone genset, and do it all automatically without any user input. We’ll have a more in-depth look at this 2018 Husick Award winner in an upcoming issue.

Our judges for this year were Ben Ellison, marine electronics expert and owner of Panbo.com; Ellen Massey Leonard, circumnavigator and marine writer; Patrick Childress, live-aboard voyager; Wayne Canning, marine surveyor and writer; Ann Hoffner, marine writer and experienced live-aboard voyager; Steve D’Antonio, marine writer, photographer and marine systems expert; Jeff Merrill, marine writer and trawler expert; Lawrence Husick, marine writer and son of Chuck Husick; Alex Agnew, Ocean Navigator publisher; and Tim Queeney, ON editor.

By Ocean Navigator