The F&P will survive over speeding, even when shorted. As the RPM goes up the core becomes saturated and the power curve flattens off. Limits the peak power, but it will never burn out and they are pretty much bullet proof.
Still, a furling system is a good idea, it protects the rest of the machine from over speeding. We tend to install a furl pull cable these days, with a cable that runs down the tower to let us pull the tail around into full furl.
You will need bigger blades. Around 2.2 meter ( about 7.3 foot ) diameter is a good all rounder for a single stator, 2.6 or so for a dual stator. The GOE222 blades are a good match for the F&P, lots of low down torque and good power up in the rev's.
The F&P is famous for its reluctance to start up in light winds do to the cogging of the alternator, but there are a few ways to fix this. Rounding the poles helps a little, but pole twisting gives much better results. The 7 phase mod has no cogging at all and starts in any wind, but has limited output rewire options compared to a normal F&P. These days a set of GOE222 blades and slightly twisted poles is all you need to get the thing started in light winds. If you go for a dual stator you can offset one stator slightly to reduce cog even further. Its no longer an issue.
Properly set up, a single will make 300 watts pretty easily, 500w for a dual. You can play around with cap modes and my favourite, staggered outputs, to give a alternator with low cut in and good mid range power.
Be careful of spinning it with the stator in factory configuration, that is, not rewired for lower voltage. The F&P can easily generate over 300 volts and a spin by hand is enough to kill someone.
Glenn
