How often do you check your belts on a shaft driven boat?

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I can't see what the fuss is all about.
In the worst case, you can always turn on the genset and keep the battery charger running, so I would agree wholeheartedly with jfm that a non working alternator on one engine (or even on both at the same time - but how unlikely is it?!) ain't mission critical at all.

Yup you would think so, wouldn't you, but it didnt work like that on my Azi 46 or indeed my Princess 435.

When I had the Cat 3208 engine stop on me in the Azi 46 due to a faulty alternator, the first warning was the charging alarm going off. Naturally I thought no problem I'll just turn the gennie on to top up the batteries only it didn't work like that. The batteries continued to discharge whilst the both the engine and gennie were running presumably because (I'm no electrician as you know) there is some kind of switch which disconnects the battery charger if the engine alternators are connected to the batteries. Eventually as I've mentioned previously, the batteries discharged sufficiently to stop energising the fuel stop solenoid in its open position and the engine stopped

On another occasion we were cruising along the River Seine at very slow speed in our Princess 435 and the nav instruments started to malfunction. After a while I noticed that service battery voltage was very low and I guessed that the alternators were not man enough to keep the batteries charged at the very slow speed we were cruising at. Again I thought no problem just turn the gennie on but again the battery charger did not charge the batteries. After that we stopped every few hours rather than cruising all day, allowing us to shut down the engines and start up the gennie in order to keep the batteries topped up

So no starting the gennie is not an easy fix for a failing alternator or at least it hasn't been on 2 of the boats I've owned

 

[MapisM]

Well, while I can't swear that there aren't other boats with that sort of electrical setup, it strikes me as a bit of nonsense, imho.
Automatically de-activating the battery charger whenever the engines are on sounds like something meant to be fool proof/easier.
I still don't like it, but I can see why someone thought it was a clever idea.
Otoh, not including a switch to bypass such feature if necessary, that's beyond a joke.
I for one surely would have wanted to remove/modify such setup.
Which btw might have been possible also "on the fly", so to speak - I'd rather try to do that than deal with a failed belt running also the raw water pump, anyway...

 

[MapisM]

A lot of boats and particularly smaller boats generally don't have gensets as a backup in this scenario and hence modern engines it will be a problem.

Can't argue with that.
Though at least you can still turn off anything electrical and try to extend the running time of the engine, till the battery lasts.
Not so if you've got no cooling anymore... Just saying.

 

[Bandit]

I had analternator/regulator problem that affected the engine that serves its own starter battery plus the domestics.

Volts drop and so I fire up the genny, it did not charge the batteries, while at sea, although in port engines off the genny charges domestics, water heater whatever you want?

 

[Bandit]

As far as checking belts, a visual for dust and debris, check pulleys for rust and feel tension obviously while engines are not running, every trip of any significance plus coolant, engine oil and gearbox oil.

generally for a weekend away check before outward run then a visual before return.

 

[Portofino]

Yup you would think so, wouldn't you, but it didnt work like that on my Azi 46 or indeed my Princess 435.

When I had the Cat 3208 engine stop on me in the Azi 46 due to a faulty alternator, the first warning was the charging alarm going off. Naturally I thought no problem I'll just turn the gennie on to top up the batteries only it didn't work like that. The batteries continued to discharge whilst the both the engine and gennie were running presumably because (I'm no electrician as you know) there is some kind of switch which disconnects the battery charger if the engine alternators are connected to the batteries. Eventually as I've mentioned previously, the batteries discharged sufficiently to stop energising the fuel stop solenoid in its open position and the engine stopped

On another occasion we were cruising along the River Seine at very slow speed in our Princess 435 and the nav instruments started to malfunction. After a while I noticed that service battery voltage was very low and I guessed that the alternators were not man enough to keep the batteries charged at the very slow speed we were cruising at. Again I thought no problem just turn the gennie on but again the battery charger did not charge the batteries. After that we stopped every few hours rather than cruising all day, allowing us to shut down the engines and start up the gennie in order to keep the batteries topped up

So no starting the gennie is not an easy fix for a failing alternator or at least it hasn't been on 2 of the boats I've owned

Ahem -and I figured that out based on 1980 German car -todays modern diesel ---you will be surprised by how much "juice " it needs to run .
An 80's 911 last 30 mins with out an alternator -- fast fwd to "EDC etc -----
Give it 10 mins tops ---b4 --- ker chunk -- stop -- if you are lucky nowts (black box is f**ked) cos of out of range v -age -ver d Gris -dodgy conections .

 

[jfm]

Well, while I can't swear that there aren't other boats with that sort of electrical setup, it strikes me as a bit of nonsense, imho.
Automatically de-activating the battery charger whenever the engines are on sounds like something meant to be fool proof/easier.
I still don't like it, but I can see why someone thought it was a clever idea.
Otoh, not including a switch to bypass such feature if necessary, that's beyond a joke.
I for one surely would have wanted to remove/modify such setup.
Which btw might have been possible also "on the fly", so to speak - I'd rather try to do that than deal with a failed belt running also the raw water pump, anyway...

+1. The problem there is the boat's electrical installation. I'm 100% sure my gensets charge the engine batteries underway if I want them to (via the 230v-->24v battery chargers). In fact due to a failed part I did most of my 2014 season with no functioning alternator on my starboard engine