Yacht generator selection

Hello to all! I had a problem, bought a small yacht and I want to put a generator there for my needs, which of these options may be suitable?

Okay, I’ll try to be helpful. I first thought this was a spam post, but if you’re sincere, here’s a few pointers:

  1. Short answer: None of them. You don’t want an open frame generator sitting out on deck, and you can’t install one belowdecks.
  2. You haven’t provided nearly enough information about your application to make even a half assed guess as to what you need.
  3. Your question doesn’t belong in this thread, it’s just going to get locked down.
  4. This may not be the best forum for your question. There’s an amazing level of technical knowledge here, but it’s not centered on yachting. Try a question about the finer points of AC vs DC DE propulsion, and you’ll spark off a lively discussion. For this kind of question, try TF, SA or any other of the yachting forums out there.

Good luck :slight_smile:

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None of them because they are not “marinized” which means they are not built so as to prevent fuel from venting into the space where they are installed and the electrical side is (almost certainly) not what is called “ignition protected” which means there is no protection against a spark igniting fuel vapors and literally blowing you (the OP) out of the water. They might be nice generators but they are in no way suited for the kind of use you have in mind.

A few small boaters carry one of those little Honda 2000 portable generators and run them to charge batteries of provide short term ac power. They put them on the foredeck or behind a flying bridge out in the open and store them and the fuel the same way they store fuel for the dinghy if they have one. You never said what size “small yacht” you are talking about so your question is a bit in the “how long is a piece of string?” category.

Yeah but be very careful of the answers you get … most of those folks know less about the topic than you (the OP) do. Buyer beware when reading answers from that bunch.

As a retired unlimited chief engineer who owns a business dedicated to the health and welfare of megayacht generators I have to disagree with that. I think there are several of us here who are very centered on the yachting industry.

It’s better here than the alternatives you suggested though those sites will produce a great deal of entertaining reading.

I used to sell, install, and service Northern Lights generators. Look at them and compare/contrast to your camping generators that have no place on a boat.

I’m also an enabler, but I try not to be too loud about it, lest there be heavy boots in the corridor.

Gasoline vapors are one thing, although I guess that might be alleviated by running the thing on LPG. Heat management is the biggie, and there is no good way around it. It’s the old Lister problem, without a handy baffle kit to duct the hot air outside.

Small yacht generator selection is actually a pretty complicated problem, much more so that for large yachts or commercial craft, since they see so widely differing duty cycles. It boils down to giving the gennie a meaningful load while having the reserve power to absorb the peaks.

I’m partial to combining a small generator (for example the excellent Mase 2kw) with a large-ish Victron Quattro backed by a sensible AGM bank and a big alternator on the propulsion engine. This is a pricey option, though. I also get carried away with waste heat utilization and systems integration, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Those tiny Hondas and their Kipor cousins are possibly the best bet when a proper solution is not in order. They’re small enough to stow away in a locker, they’re whisper quiet, they can easily be placed on the dock to kill the vibration noise, and they produce very clean power. The Hondas have the exhaust exit co-axially with the cooling air, and there’s a kit for ducting the nastiness outside. I assume that the ever thorough Japanese have also considered the fuel vapor problem, but do refer to the manual.

With all of that being said, it’s looking a bit like this was a low effort attempt at generating clicks for a shill blog, but hey, interesting subject nonetheless…

I think you are right. If that is the case they sure don’t know much about the market they aimed that one at.