mjf
Well-Known Member
I was interested to read the piece on gensets in this months MB&Y as I have been looking at installing such a beast for the past couple of years.
The issue for me was that formally these units were frankly rather too large / took up too much space in my size of boat. Certainly that was the case with the factory fitted generators.
New technology has allowed decent power outputs to be produced from smaller, rather compact gensets. Thus I looked at the main players Onan, Mastervolt, Panda, and Puguro etc etc. The cost of the genset was always the big ticket and $ , € forex issues played their part in me delaying until now, ‘local’ costs are in fact quite high too covering ‘quiet kits’ , skin fittings and of course the installation/commissioning.
All up these things are the price of a small car forchristsake!
Thus at SIBS I bit the € forex bullet and gave up on it weakening in the near future
(sure sign it will fall like a stone now )and I was able to arrange a supply, fit and commission deal with, oddly, Advance Yacht Systems who get mentioned in the magazine article.
These guys are the importers/distributers of Paguro and as well as being very nice people to deal with; have a terrific selection of retro fit photos from which to judge their work. The product knowledge also impressed. The arrangement was extremely flexible as all I needed was a fixed lumpsum price and have the thing operational by Easter 2010 when the long anchoring sessions re-commence.
As luck would have it the unit was installed during the 1st week of November and was commissioned early this week after a lift out, shower, shave and blow dry.
I’m delighted with the installation job – absolutely first class.
So, now I will be able to run all the nice items a la marina – oven, nespresso machine etc whilst charging batteries and heating the water.
Here are a couple of pix. You can see the unit has a built in sump pump and has its own starting handle in case its own dedicated battery falls flat. They have done a nice job with the control panel (which before was quite ugly) – the cherry will darken over time I’m told…..The LED load indication is great and this unit is of the type that can accept higher than quoted Kw for shortish periods without overload/overheat auto shut down. Certainly on test I was able to run oven, kettle etc.
The Honda suitcase jobbie has done us proud until now but I was getting fed up hauling it in and out of the laz and awaiting cries of protest when used in quiet spots!
It’s a lot of money but does enhance the boat loads and I would definitely spec one in any future newbuild.
I have been in ctc with several others on here about generators and would like to hear news of their experiences, usage et al?
The issue for me was that formally these units were frankly rather too large / took up too much space in my size of boat. Certainly that was the case with the factory fitted generators.
New technology has allowed decent power outputs to be produced from smaller, rather compact gensets. Thus I looked at the main players Onan, Mastervolt, Panda, and Puguro etc etc. The cost of the genset was always the big ticket and $ , € forex issues played their part in me delaying until now, ‘local’ costs are in fact quite high too covering ‘quiet kits’ , skin fittings and of course the installation/commissioning.
All up these things are the price of a small car forchristsake!
Thus at SIBS I bit the € forex bullet and gave up on it weakening in the near future
(sure sign it will fall like a stone now )and I was able to arrange a supply, fit and commission deal with, oddly, Advance Yacht Systems who get mentioned in the magazine article.
These guys are the importers/distributers of Paguro and as well as being very nice people to deal with; have a terrific selection of retro fit photos from which to judge their work. The product knowledge also impressed. The arrangement was extremely flexible as all I needed was a fixed lumpsum price and have the thing operational by Easter 2010 when the long anchoring sessions re-commence.
As luck would have it the unit was installed during the 1st week of November and was commissioned early this week after a lift out, shower, shave and blow dry.
I’m delighted with the installation job – absolutely first class.
So, now I will be able to run all the nice items a la marina – oven, nespresso machine etc whilst charging batteries and heating the water.
Here are a couple of pix. You can see the unit has a built in sump pump and has its own starting handle in case its own dedicated battery falls flat. They have done a nice job with the control panel (which before was quite ugly) – the cherry will darken over time I’m told…..The LED load indication is great and this unit is of the type that can accept higher than quoted Kw for shortish periods without overload/overheat auto shut down. Certainly on test I was able to run oven, kettle etc.
The Honda suitcase jobbie has done us proud until now but I was getting fed up hauling it in and out of the laz and awaiting cries of protest when used in quiet spots!
It’s a lot of money but does enhance the boat loads and I would definitely spec one in any future newbuild.
I have been in ctc with several others on here about generators and would like to hear news of their experiences, usage et al?
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