The use or misuse of generators - Annoying or is it just me.

[Big John]

During our two week holiday up the river I happened to stop at the public moorings at Goring. We pulled in just to have a walk into town but as the weather turned bad we decided to stop the night.

An Anglo-Welsh hire narrow boat started up his engine directly behind me and commenced to charge up his batteries. As he was a hire boater I gave him some time but by 18.15 I had had enough of the noise and diesel fumes and I politely asked him to stop which he did and I thanked him.

Low and behold the large plastic 38ft in front of me then started his internal generator. Because his exhaust outlet was by the concrete the noise was amplified and all that could be heard was a deep constant rumbling.

I put up with this for about an hour and I went to asked if the owner would turn it off. His wife answered and I explained the noise was not acceptable and she said ”oh yes it is getting late, 19.45, I will speak to my husband”. Within 10 mins he came marching down telling me he will run his generator until 21.00 if it suits him as he is all electric and needs to charge the batteries.

I explained I had had a problem with the narrow boat and he said he hated narrow boats and the running of their engines! I did not see his logic.

He then told me to get a life and watch TV or listen to the radio to drown out his noisy generator.

Any comments?

 

[sailorman]

I had words with out Dutch raft neighbour , He was on the outside of me. we were in the forepeak trying to sleep ( his cockpit was alongside the forepeak).He started his engine @ 23.00 hrs I raised the forehatch & explained with a few choice words what he might do & he did

 

[Chris_d]

Not sure i can comment as I'm sitting here running my generator mind no one in in front or behind, but i will turn it off if they return.

 

[byron]

Funny! Gennies running have NEVER bothered me. I regard them as quite acceptable and have often commented on how quiet they are these days.

 

[Phill]

Ohhh nooooo. I've just bought a Honda suitcase generator. I've never bothered with one before, but we've got a mooring for 3 days at Rewind this year and didn't want to run the engines to heat water. The generator is much quiter and a lot less smokey than my aging Volvos! Must remember to talk to my neighbors before start up.

 

[Actionmat]

I find them perfectly acceptable , just as long as they are nowhere near another boat. They should be banned at all public mooring sites and their owners educated on how to set up a decent house battery system so they will never need one. I only need to charge my batteries if I haven't moved for 3 days, which has yet to happen.

We spent a couple of nights next to friends of ours who needed to fire up the engine on their wide beam in order to operate their Nespresso. I didn't mind as it meant I was about to be given a coffee, but personally, I'm more than happy to rough it with no microwave or coffee machine.

And as for NB's with wood burning stoves..............Grrrrrrr

 

[Fantasie 19]

”oh yes it is getting late, 19.45, I will speak to my husband”. Within 10 mins he came marching down telling me he will run his generator until 21.00 if it suits him as he is all electric and needs to charge the batteries.

Was fairly early then?? He also seemed willing to turn off at a fairly early hour?

Round my way the council gives guidance on what times are acceptable/unacceptable to make a lot of noise in your garden, and those times are way after your generating neighbour offered.....

Just my two penn'orth

 

[colingr]

We were told on our last canal boat holiday that no engines were to be run after 20:00 or before 08:00

Seemed reasonable.

 

[rosssavage]

8 till 8 seems reasonable to me.

No to smokey engines for battery charging, but no issue with gennies (suitcase or internal) as long as it's between reasonable hours.

 

[Brayman]

There's a Thames By-law that states that you are forbidden to run engines while stationary to the annoyance of others and that includes Generators. we were made aware of the by-law by an EA inspector at Abingdon several years ago. (I had lent my generator to a friend to heat his water and when the inspector asked me if it was annoying me I couldn't say anything but "NO, of course not"!)

 

[pmagowan]

I think it is give and take. I would rather have another G&T and forget about it than get all worked up enough to go and ask someone to turn it off. I suspect that if they are runing it, and it is closer to them than me, then they must have a good reason and they will stop when they can. One thing that did slightly annoy me was when a local boat had a very noisly wind generator that ran all the time. It made a wonderful mooring to have a picnic on a little less wonderful. Still, after a few G&Ts I hardly noticed it.

 

[No Regrets]

I'm with him...LOL!

Up to 8 or 9pm, I'm not bothered. Much later than this causes a little annoyance, unless like Brayman you just rented out your gennie for a fiver an hour....

 

[Wavey]

Previous boat we had for 20 years on the Thames was a 40' cruiser with no gas on board, everything was electric, so had to run the gennie daily except when we had access to shore power. Never had a complaint in all the years we owned her.

 

[oldgit]

Would be nice if most folks only ran their gennies only when absolutely vital and not as a method of avoiding buying a new set of batteries.
Due to my weedy battery capacity and the voracious appetite of all the leccy junk bought on board by my wife/daughter and grandkids we did totally flatten the domestics.
Went to great lengths to avoid any noise pollution to other boats and moved out of earshot.
Personally hate the poxy things..at Runnymede it states no gennies and that suits me fine.
As for no complaints....when do we british complain...we just suffer in "no" silence.