Abstract-This paper deals with the use of permanent magnet multiphase generators in marine current turbines with the aim to highlight their fault-tolerance. In this context, the performances and the fault-tolerant capabilities of a 5-phase permanent magnet synchronous generator are evaluated within a marine current turbine and compared to a classical 3-phase generator. For both topologies, a robust nonlinear control strategy is adopted. The adopted control consists in an adaptive control approach that combines three strategies: an MPPT, an optimal fault-adaptive reference current generation, and high-order sliding modes.Simulations