Onboard generator?

[Deep Lee Reefed]

And a Genset on the Bow

I got poetic once about on-board generators:

His Santana 22 was fast
before he tricked her out.
Now her waterline is rising
and her freeboards are in doubt.

There’s a color TV, a Christmas tree,
a lighted makeup mirror,
and, if you please, an Ionic Breeze
to clear the atmosphere.
The microwave and power shave
and Maytag washing machine
are wired through his computer
to an electric putting green…

No, she’s not as fast as she used to be.
She’s more of a pig right now.
She’s got six lead-acid batteries
and a genset on her bow.

He’s on the ball, he wants it all,
he’s a thoroughly modern sailor.
Indeed it’s true his 22
can tow a Boston Whaler.
He knows his rights, he wears blue tights,
he watches fights on Friday nights,
he likes his year-round Christmas lights,
and his power bill is large…

Yes, some may say in a cynical way
they’d rather have a barge.
But, me, I see it differently,
I’d rather have a cow
than six lead-acid batteries
and a genset on the bow.

 

[larryw]

DLR-
Truly poetic and on the money! I can just see Lake P now; hundreds of boats anchored, not a soul visible, they're all down below, huddled in the tiny air-conditioned salon, each of them cursing their neighbor for running a loud construction-grade generator that they bought for cheap, telling themselves they're having a great time sailing. I'm glad I live in the West and sail the Pacific Ocean.

 

[kloudie1]

Pretty funny, Larry, but only true during the real heat of the summer.. Deep Lee’s ditty is right on !! I've sailed in the Long Beach area (San Juan Islands too) a little and one thing I noted was that the water at its warmest in the year is as cool as or slightly cooler than our sailing water ever gets in the dead of the winter. Makes a big difference in the cabin temp. Example: The boat I now own was a liveaboard in Redondo Beach .. The Architect that owned her, moved to Houston and attempted to live aboard without AC in the Kemah area where Scott and Franklin have their boats. So I have the boat now with AC on it. Imagine sleeping in a sauna with a dozen, four pound mosquitoes! Out on the gulf islands, off the coast of Mississippi and Alabama, a windscoop in the forward hatch is all that is needed but in a bayou with 75 foot trees all around to block the breeze, it gets a bit warm .. If ya open the hatches, the big mosquitoes will come aboard and run off the four pound ones! Lots of pros and cons for all sailing areas..

 

[kloudie1]

OOPS sorry, Scott, Corpus Krispy may be even warmer!

 

[larryw]

kloudie-
I spent two years in Thailand working on a tugboat with no A/C, and lived in a hootch in the 'vill, also with no A/C, and was in VA for a summer, also with no A/C.You want to talk heat and skeeters; been there, done it and have the T-shirt. I'm a SoCal native and glad of it. I don't know how you guys in Looz'ana do it. I couldn't stand that much generator time. My Tilly hat is off to you.

 

[Deep Lee Reefed]

I couldn't endure the biting insects again. When I moved from Ohio to the Pacific Northwest I was astonished to find an almost complete absence of skeeters and other biting insects. I've encountered biting flies up in BC, but I'm almost never bitten by any bugs down here in Puget Sound. Add to that the mild winters and usually fair winds and we've got it pretty good for sailing.

 

[MKirk51]

Where can you buy a hard start capacitor and how is it hooked up? What farad rating would a 16000btu AC need? My AC is still kicking but if it goes I am going to get a new more efficient portable AC. Since this thread is also about AC, does anyone have a portable AC, not a window unit, but the kind that has an exaust vent hose like a clothes dryer has?

Hermit,
I bought one last year, and it doesn't work quite as well as I thought it would. I can't recall the BTU's but I think it's a little more than the CruiseAir Carryon models, which I looked at first but were more than I wanted to spend.
I didn't think about it when I got it, and please correct me if my theory is wrong, but all the heat is exhausted by air being blown outside. The air going outside has to be replaced, and what comes back in of course is warm, outside air. A window or hatch unit doesn't work that way. The coils are outside, so it brings in air from the outside, cools off the coils, and then blows it back outside. So I think the portable's efficiency is way way down because it's drawing outside air back into the cabin. On a real hot day I would have to close the door to the head and v-berth to really make it comfortable down there, and that's for a 28 Oday. Not a lot of cubic feet.
Or maybe I got a lemon. The air coming out seems pretty cool to me though.
Not generator related. Just my experience with portable AC's.
Matt

 

[Hermit Scott]

I did see some models that had a divided hose that presumably drew air in from the outside to cool the condenser. After your testimony I will only buy one if it works that way.
Drawing cold air out to cool the condenser seems like bad engineering to me. Of course one could always add a hose and plastic cover to draw the air from the outside. But I wouldn't buy one and reengineer it when there are other models already built like what I want. I was at sears today but they had none in stock yet. I have to buy an AC for my shop apartment. One took a crap last fall. I might as well buy one that I can take to the boat easily.

 

[MacMikey]

I have seen a lot of references to the high cost of the Honda's. I know that most sailors are considered to the on the "chepskate" side so with toungue in cheek let me give you some food for thought.

My boss has a 28' Proline with two 250hp engines and a Kohler 5kw generator to provide power while on anchor for his wife to be able to enjoy the cabins 2 (yep two) A/C units. One is a built in system that came with the boat and the other is a free standing type from Home Depot that exuasts outside (room type A/C). His genset cost over $7000.00 and it just so happens to be out of the boat right now having some repairs done to it. One of which is the digital control panel went bad, and the replacement part cost $975.00. The unit weighs over 250 lbs. and uses about 1 gallon of gas per hour of operation.

I have suggested to him to junk it and replace it with two Honda 2000's and he can replace them every year (just for the fun of it) and he will still be ahead of the game in the long run.

http://www.kohlerpower.com/marine/d...goryNumber=12561&filter_1=60 Hz&prodnum=72961

 

[Hermit Scott]

Then who's going to pay for the diesel generator salesman's kids college?

 

[Jerry Clark H356 SV Persi]

Look at Northern Lights too for inboard

I had a 5kw Northern Lights installed when I commissioned my 356 in 03. It now has about 1600 hours on it. It is mounted in the aft port locker. If didn't originally have a sound enclosure installed and I later tried to add the factory unit but didn't have room. I had a custom enclosure made and it is barely noticeable now.

My unit has 3 cylinders and runs at 1800 RPM versus a comparable Panda that is a single cylinder and runs at 3600 RPM. I have friends who have both and all of us with Northern Lights prefer them for less vibration and noise. Panda does a lot of marketing and Northen Lights is not as well known, but I believe is the better generator. I burn about 6 gallons in 24 hours and we use it most of time we are out of the slip for both heat and cooling during our hot humid summers. Other than changing oil and impellers, I have done absolutely nothing to it.

I took a Cabo Rico 38 from Ky Lake to Punta Gorda last fall with a relatively new 5KW Panda. We didn't run it at night on the hook because it was so noisy.It got quite cool in the interior of the boat while we slept (Nov 07). His unit has had a lot of maintenance issues as well. 'll take my Northern Lights hands down over the Panda, so give them a look.

 

[Eric M]

Jerry,
Nice job on your genset sound insulation install. I also have a 5KW NorthernLights in the locker on my IP35 and don't have space for the factory enclosure. Would you be willing to share the material that was used for your insulation blanket and how the pieces attach to each other an the base? Thanks in advance.

Eric

IP35
Serendipity
St. Augustine, FL

 

[larryw]

As far as costs go, the Honda EU is more expensive because of its portability and low-noise and vibration. You can certainly get a cheaper one, but it's a construction-grade unit, with no noise baffling muffler and case and vibrates more. We see a lot of those around here on boats that are being used as cheap housing, mostly in anchorages. You know the ones; decks full of milk crates, blue tarps over everything, ratty dinks tied to them.

 

[Benny]

It is true that portable a/c are not as efficient as window units. Besides drawing outside hot air into the cabin they draw the humidity that comes with it. Some of the heat also radiates back into the cabin via the exaust hose. The question is does ithe unit cool enough to make a hot summer night beareble? No design is perfect so if you cannot justify a permanetly installed water cooled unit then choose between stepping over a window unit on the companion way or a larger btu portable unit that will do a similar job. Mind your generator's ability as the smaller ones may not run a 10,000 btu portable unit.

 

[Hermit Scott]

I was totally sold on those portable AC units until I read what you had to say on here about them. I passed on the portable unit. Instead I opted to be more comfortable this summer at home and bought a 25,000 btu for the shop apartment. At $400 it was the same price as the 9,000 btu portable that would undoubtably piss my wife off when temps hit 105. We had a 12,500 btu that wasn't really cutting it on the real hot days.
I have a 5,200 btu window unit. Very compact and cools really well. If the honda eu2000 won't run my 16,000 btu marine AC I will try installing some vacuum formed shrouds and an inlet duct and vent duct on the small window unit and make it into a portable.