Winter Refit – The New Generator (Part 1)

The old generator stripped of parts to reduce its weight and the
 surrounding panels removed to help with access

Our Winter Refit was made up of several large projects; one of which was replacing our generator. During our summer cruise the generator had become increasingly difficult to start. We had gone through a whole series of tests and adjustments to keep it going but then every few days it would turn over but not fire up. The injector seemed okay; it was cleaned but we were expecting to have to fit a new one to properly rule that out. The valve gaps were checked multiple times and bizarrely the generator always seemed to start straight away after those checks. Most worryingly we started to see traces of oil in the cooling seawater ejected from the exhaust and so we stopped running it.

It was clear that the generator was in need of a complete strip down, refurbishment and rebuild. I therefore set about drawing up a list of replacement parts that we would need to order in. Trying to price those parts up highlighted an issue. It would appear that this model of diesel generator motor hadn’t been made in Europe for a few years and with spare parts starting to become scarce, they were surprisingly expensive. Fischer Panda advised me that they don’t supply generators with that diesel motor in them any longer because the engine manufacturing company they had got the motors from had gone bust several years ago. As a result, Fischer Panda had designed a whole new generator to replace the gap in the market.

A major recondition of our existing generator would be possible but it was looking like it would be an expensive and time consuming operation. Additionally, I was concerned that in the future we might have difficulties getting spares; it didn’t seem sensible to invest a lot of time and money into an almost obsolete generator. Instead I started looking in detail at replacement generators available from several manufacturers. A key factor was which ones would fit our machinery space and the tortuous access route into that part of the boat.

The route to our machinery space at the aft starboard corner of Blue Velvet – the old generator
 would need to be carried out through this tunnel and the new generator back in the same way!

Our current generator was a rectangular cuboid shape which just squeezed through the narrow doorway into the aft heads.  It was a heavy lump weighing around 100kgs and manhandling it off the engine beds, through two hatchways and a doorway to get it into the saloon was going to be a challenge.  We would then need to lift it up through the companionway to get it off the boat.

With the machinery space cleared, access was much
better but lifting the generator off the beds and out
 through the hatch would still be difficult

Doors panels and the machinery space flooring were removed to give maximum access.  After disconnecting the generator supply lines I also stripped off every easily removable part of the generator to reduce the weight.

The plan was for one strong character to lie in the back corner of the machinery space and, as a 2 man lift, the generator would be moved off its mounts and then progressively inched out through the hatchways with suitable blocks underneath it. This was the same technique we’d seen used when we had had the original generator replaced with this one.

With everything ready for the lift out, it was time to recruit some extra muscle power. My daughter’s boyfriend Matt was roped in and he also found a friend from the gym who was happy to help. I’m not entirely sure that they knew what they were letting themselves in for!

With 2 muscly characters crammed into the machinery space there wasn’t much room to move and having to lift the generator up and off the beds without any headroom above it was far from easy. However, little by little the generator was manhandled out of the machinery space and into the saloon. Once there we rigged up a rope cradle which was attached to the spinnaker halyard. With another rope and block attached to the backstay we could then use the winches to take the load as we wiggled the generator up through the companionway and out into the cockpit.

The lifting team!  You can also see the spinnaker halyard, block and rope set up we used
to help get the generator up through the companionway and off the boat

A slight bump from a 100kg lump of metal could do a lot of damage so we had padded the doorways as best we could and used lots of protective boards as the generator was progressively moved. Even with those precautions, there was always the concern that we might damage some of Blue Velvet’s beautiful woodwork during the lift out operation. It was, therefore, a great relief when we finally got the old generator up into the cockpit with just a few scratched in the varnish around the aft heads doorway where we had needed to angle the generator to get it through the narrow gap. With smiles all around we were able to use the same spinnaker halyard, rope and block set up to lift the generator off the boat and onto a trolly. A very successful afternoon’s work!

St Peter Port, Guernsey