Fitting a generator in a cat

[bigwow]

This winters job is to fit a 5Kw water cooled generator into my Flica 34 catamaran. I can see 2 options; either fit it into the cockpit by raising the sole and putting it under the helmsman’s seat, or removing the port fuel tank and fitting it in front of the engine in the port hull. Has anyone any experience of or advice on before I start this major surgery? Thanks

 

[bobgosling]

Or how about fitting a cat instead of a generator ?

Drop a cat and it will always fall on its feet.

Drop toast and it will always fall buttered side down.

Therefore if you butter the back of a cat and drop it you should end up with a cat continuously rotating a few inches above the floor.

It should be a simple matter then to rig a cranked flywheel to it and attach a belt to turn an alternator.

Power for free !!!

 

[Ships_Cat]

I am sure others will comment on sailing cats but from my involvement with new builds of much bigger high performance power cats we fret over the weight of the gen sets on those in order to keep weight down.

I can only imagine it would be many times more important on a 10m sailing cat.

John

 

[bigwow]

If I had been soliciting jocular replies I would have posted this in the lounge!

 

[bigwow]

Too late to fret over the weight, I’ve already bought the gen set. My main concerns were over the sound travel and vibrations, although the gen set is double mounted, the single cylinder farymann revs at 3000rpm the bridgedeck is foam sandwich will this transmit unwanted noise and vibration? Also will the weight higher up on the bridgedeck have more on effect than it will down in one hull?

 

[Ships_Cat]

All the good installations I have seen in sailboats (all monohulls) have been with the genset in its manufacturer's acoustic enclosure (20db attenuation is typical) and with a water lift muffler - these installations are quite quiet, especially outside the boat for neighbours. In one installation I recall it being separated from the main sleeping cabin only by a longitudinal bulkhead (in an around 55 foot boat).

John

 

[srm]

It looks as if you own the wrong boat. Quite seriously, you may well do better to sell the boat and buy one more suited to the weight of gen set and the equipment implied by 5KW of power.

I have not sailed a Flica but my understanding is that they are at the performance end of the cruising cat spectrum which means keeping the total weight down.

As to stability, if you go ahead and fit it, the lower the better - though you will probably trim one hull lower than the other which may effect heavy weather performance and possibly safety.

Best bet is to ask the designer for his views before you do anything drastic to the boat, as you may finish up with something that no one else wants when its time to sell her.

Hope these comments help.

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day John,

We sometimes take a small air cooled gen set to provide power on the beach at night and have hooked it into the 240 volt supply on board to conserve or charge batteries.

I took a long look at places to install it and came to the conclusion that it was best stowed at home till needed, it's not as if we use it every trip. When on extended cruises we fill it with fuel to pull the freezers down (thermostats bypassed) and then get off the boat and do bit of fishing in the rubber duck to get away from the noise and exhaust, returning about 90 minutes later when the fuel has run out.

I did consider installing it between the forward lockers just in front of the mast; anchor chain in one side and gas in the other, creating another hatch and separate locker with a soundproof lining. air intake from inside the saloon (under the forward seat) and exhaust through the bottom of the locker.

Not sure if I would like any rapid vibration even close to a foam composite tho.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[bigwow]

My Flica slipped from the performance end to the cruising end of the spectrum a long time ago. Can’t see it effecting the heavy weather performance as the hull would only go down about 1” further than the other and as the keels are water tanks I could run with just the starboard tank and leave the post one empty to equalise the weight.

 

[DaveS]

Where can I get some of what you're on?