Marinette Boat Forum

I am interested in a 37 Aft that has everything I want and is in good condition, but, it does not have a generator.
Does anyone have a solid ball park estimate for what it would cost to have a new or reliable used generator fully installed? Thanks for your input.

There was a guy out in Arizona, Mike, that sold used Westerbeke generators. I bought a supposedly rebuilt 6.5kw unit from him. I would avoid him at all costs! Over the course of several months I would try calling him and most of the time being unsuccessful. He delayed shipping for one reason or another. When I finally did receive the unit, and waiting for my son's to help lower it into the engine compartment, I thought I'd do a little checking out of the unit. I pulled the anode plug and found the very corroded remains of the anode, in a unit that had supposedly just been rebuilt. Given the excuses, delays, the finding of similar circumstances from other boaters on other forums, and that discovery of the apparent sub standard work performed, I feel justified in this cautionary post.

"Let the buyer beware" was never truer!

Bill

The type and size of the generator you get will be a relatively fixed cost. The install will be the big determining factor.
Is the space there for it?
Is the fuel system prepped for it?
Are there battery cables already in place?
Where do you want the exhaust routed?
And the biggest question: what will it take to get the generator in its final location? Being an aft cabin boat will make it harder to get the generator in the hole. I installed one a number of years ago that we had to separate the engine, generator and frame and lower the pieces through a forward hatch. Then put it back together in the hole. We had $5000 just in the install.

Don't think this is legal (you can check) but mounting a common generator on the swim platform is one solution.

Jeff

In this case legal= safe. I'd suspect (I suspect, you check), a swim platform genset is ok because fumes are not in areas where people congregate. Unless there's wind that blow them back into the boat. Which is why, at night, we rarely ran genset as we slept. Even one installed in the bilge with overboard exhaust. It may have been ok, but I wasn't going to take chance of finding out the hard way.
But mounting unit on swim platform subjects it to a lot of external water unless the unit is very well sealed

I would say, first and foremost, wherever you decide to put a genny, ensure you have a working carbon monoxide (CO) detector AND amply sized location dedicated fire extinguisher mounted where they will be most useful in an emergency (ie. CO detector in the living area where fumes would settle/accumulate (CO gas is heavier than air)), extinguisher close by the genny where it can be readily gotten to (but at a safe enough distance where an emegency with the genny would prevent getting to it!

That said, should you consider a swim platform mounted genny, consider an inverter genny as they're very quiet. A standard construction type genny will put out a ton of noise and vibration. Not only will the noise be extremely bothersome, both inside and out, but should you decide that it's safe to run after hours and you're sleeping, or trying to sleep, the vibration from the genny will transmit to the hull. You'd be living inside an inverse sound chamber - sound and vibration resonating inside a metal box. Not good !!

You could mitigate the sound and vibration by enclosing the genny in a sound deadening box but you'll also have to incorporate a means for purging exhaust out of the box AND drawing in sufficient fresh air to allow the genny to run.

Sizing of the genny, as noted in an earlier post, will definitely come into play. Our 32' Sedan Bridge has 2 30 amp inbound breakers. Using the formula;
I(A) = P(W) / V(V) where I = (A)mps, P = (Power)Watts, and V=(V)olts will tell you the size (wattage) genny you should need. If you have, will have, as we do, 2 30A connectors for Shore Power (SP) with 1 dedicated for Air Conditioning (AC) and you can do without AC while away from the dock's SP, then you could make do with a smaller inverter genny. We have a Westinghouse Igen 2500 for our popup camper. It will provide power enough to run several appliances on your boat (1 burner of the stove, hair dryer, coffee maker, fridge (we swapped to an AC power model) - not all at one time but selectively so as to not go over the genny's running output (2200 watts).
NOTE - we have a 1000W inverter connected to a dedicated deep cycle AGM battery that powers only the fridge. The battery is charged by the starboard engine alternator, or SP. With such setup a small genny wouldn't necessarily need to power your fridge (shutting off the fridge AC breaker would throw the inverter into using the battery.) As the fridge doesn't run constantly, the battery will go a long time before falling to 50% capacity and the inverter shutting down.

Such a genny, weighing in at 46lbs, could be set on a swim platform and a hefty (10AWG) extension cord supply power to the non-AC circuits.
** A word of caution - if you were to use such a genny on the swim platform,
1. ensure it's attached to a permanent part of the boat (stanchion?) with SS wire cable (so if waves are rough, you won't lose it!)
2. Build and/or place a 6" high sided tray for it to sit down in on the swim platform. This >>should<< prevent it from falling overboard (and the wire cable in "1." above (being taut enough to prevent and tumbling about) will keep it in place. A drain hole would come in handy for any errant wave that sloshed too high. Mounting a plastic check valve at the drain hole will keep water from coming in but allow for draining.
3. Mount a couple of SS eye hooks to the swim platform, opposite each other, and use a tightened ratchet strap through the genny's handle as a final "I don't want a $650.00 investment to fall overboard!" peace of mind policy.

--> There's a reason my kids gave me the moniker"Overkill Bill".

Bill

I did get some feedback/estimated costs from my post on the Marinette FB page. Obviously, those costs can vary depending on the type of unit etc. However, I’m gathering it would likely be at least 10-12k for a reliable unit.
For now it has become a mute point for us....the 37 aft we had some interest in up in Michigan went into contract before we had the opportunity to make an offer. Oh well...we’ll find the right boat at the right time. It works that way for us
Regarding the portable generator discussion that this developed into....

We have utilized a Champion 3200 Inverter generator on our 32 Sedan while traveling along the great loop over the past 4 years for 4-5 weeks at a time. It has really worked well for the limited amount that we’ve found it necessary to use it. When using it I do drop it down onto the swim platform and secure it there with rope (I’m not nearly as careful as Bill!!).
We run it only occasionally when we’ve been away from shore power for 2 or more days.

We have a couple of times utilized the portable generator to run our 16000 btu AC for a couple of hours during the hottest part of the late afternoon in the Fla heat. When we installed the new AC unit a couple of years ago we added a ‘smart start’ capacitor to it which keeps it from pulling too much from the genny at startup. Works great!

We have a Magnum 2000 W Inverter feeding a bank of (4) 6V batteries in parallel/series. This system does a GREAT job of keeping the fridge cold, making coffee, running the microwave, running all our LED lighting for ~2 days.

We cannot wait to be down to Jacksonville in 10 days to launch and be back aboard for this years adventure! We will be heading up the ICW ~800 miles to Deltaville VA.

I am not a fan of portable Gens.
1. CO issues
2. Loud
3. Never designed for on water floating Neural my kick GFCI breakers.
4. Legal.... Criminal..... ?? Civil Liability YES
5. Not USCG OR UL approved for Marine Use. Insurance my not cover a claim.

I looked into a gen and decided to go with larger house batteries and a 1800 Xantrex inverter.

You will make few friends if a Genny is running while at anchor in a quiet cove!