L420 Generator Noise

[Mark424]

A few months back I was in Ft Lauderdale looking at used cats, had the opportunity to take a look at the L420 & 440. Must say I was impressed by the layout. There has been a big change in cat designs in the last 15 years. At 6'4" with broad shoulders (and waist), the older cats just aren't the same - even the big cats.

I only got a short time to look at the L420 as it was a boat in for warranty work so the owners and techs were scrambling about. One thing I did notice was that the generator wasn't as quiet as I expected. When they opened the hatch in the cockpit I could hear that part of the noise was from panel vibration. Sure enough, I put my hand on different parts of the gen encosure and there was lots of vibration and rattling. This seems like something that could be easily be solved - there are lots of adhesive synthetic/rubber sheets that are made for reducing this kind of noise. Similarly, you could feel the vibration throughout the cockpit. Most generators run at a single RPM, so instead of the typical wide bandwidth engine mounts used on diesels there are mounts/dampers that are tuned to a narrow freq band so that they have much more vibration isolation.

Yes it was quiet, but it wasn't silent (or vibration free through the hull) - I've been on well built mono's that were similarly quiet under power. Are these options that perhaps these owners didn't buy? Has anyone added additional sound/vibration dampening? or upgraded mounts?

I'm glad the G2 is providing improvement, I prefer the helm on the 420 v 440 but here in So Cal wind averages ~9-10Kn so there is lots of motorsailing and down right motoring.


Thanks

Mark