Crazy high generator hours: any ideas why?

[will_q]

Hello folks,

We are looking to buy our first boat, an ex-Moorings 2018 Leopard 40, currently in Florida, that was based in Belize until last year. The engines have low 700s hours and the boat was presented as lightly used due, largely, to location and Covid travel restrictions. The price seems good and the survey from last year showed only minor issues (since repaired) and above average condition.

The puzzler is that the generator hours were sky high at almost 5,400 hours when released from Moorings last year. I am no math whiz, but that would seem to come out to an average of about 20 hours per week of generator use, 52 weeks a year for 5 years straight. It seems odd.

There was no indication of a generator ‘swap’ (ie that Moorings swapped in an old generator into this boat). It almost seems as if someone used the boat as a houseboat for 5 years, unconnected to shore power for some reason. If this is right, I am not certain what impact 5 years of full time use might have on the boat systems.

I inquired with the broker as to the reasons behind the high generator use and there was no information obtainable. He says that he is not concerned and that the boat has good bones.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what might explain such high genset use or come across something similar previously?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all

[Fuss]

well, i would tell the broker that you want to talk to the owner….and don’t accept some BS answer.
if i was selling my boat i would always love to talk to a motivated buyer.
just imagine…. i could tell them how great my boat is and why it’s so superior to all the forumites boats… oh yes…

[Jeannius]

I owned a charter boat based in the BVI. In the Caribbean, people who charter boats run air conditioning and therefore generator an horrendous amount. It was not uncommon for a generator to be run more than 12 hours a day. I remember one charter that ran it over 100 hours in a week. I know because I paid for every service as I was not on a guaranteed revenue plan. My first generator lasted less than 4 years in charter and failed at 11,000 hours.

If I was you I'd be more suspicious about the low engine hours than the high generator hours. Having said that, you may well be right about it being used as a houseboat during covid years.

[Peeew]

Some charter companies use their boats to house staff when the boats aren’t sailing. Could explain this.

[Tin Tin]

If it has air-con then in charter they could have it on all day and night. If you are worried about worn out systems - the generator still has a half its life left, some of the aircon components on the other hand may be up for renewal. Other things would be the water heaters as they probably left these on all the time too. If it also has a water maker then they may also have had full showers every day and just made water all the time on AC power so water maker and water pump may be a bit tired.

[mvweebles]

My generator was installed new a few years ago. Installed wired the hour-meter incorrectly and was on for weeks ticking over hours without running. Consequently, shows a LOT more hours than actual usage. Pisses me off.

[Cheechako]

It could just be that charters dont sail long distance from base, so engine hours are low, but they sit at anchor or dock and charter people run the A/C constantly.
It's always hard to say for sure but gen sets can go 10k hours I think... they run at constant speed albeit fast.

[landsend]

20 hours a week for a charter boat air conditioning doesn't sound bad at all. In the Florida summer AC is on 24/7.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by landsend

20 hours a week for a charter boat air conditioning doesn't sound bad at all. In the Florida summer AC is on 24/7.

OP said 20 hrs per week year round. 1000 hours per year. Given charter season is a fraction of the year, it does sound like a lot.

[donradcliffe]

There's 168 hours in a week, so 24/7 aircon would explain the high hours. If you want to continue with aircon, plan on replacing the genset at some point. Charter boats do not have solar panels, so some of the hours would just be charging batteries nightly on charter.

[Fishspearit]

The generator hours sound normal to me for an ex charter boat in the Caribbean. Like Jeannius I would be suspect of the engine hours. Not going to mention names but the last charter boat I captained around the BVI was showing 14 hours on one of the hour meters when we started the charter. It was clearly an original engine on a boat that had been in charter for over 2 years. We put about 40 hours on it in 10 days. The only way to know for sure is to download the computer ECU data.

[malbert73]

Last time we chartered in Nov, we noticed all surrounding catamarans had gensets running around the clock. Even during nice breezy cool nights �� when hatches could easily be opened.

Probably good news that engines were likely only used for propulsion - rather than extended low load running to charge the batteries as in all charter boats without a genset.

[will_q]

Originally Posted by Jeannius

I owned a charter boat based in the BVI. In the Caribbean, people who charter boats run air conditioning and therefore generator an horrendous amount. It was not uncommon for a generator to be run more than 12 hours a day. I remember one charter that ran it over 100 hours in a week. I know because I paid for every service as I was not on a guaranteed revenue plan. My first generator lasted less than 4 years in charter and failed at 11,000 hours.

If I was you I'd be more suspicious about the low engine hours than the high generator hours. Having said that, you may well be right about it being used as a houseboat during covid years.

Thanks, that's an interesting point about the low engine hours, I hadn't thought about it except that it sounded favorable.

The actual engine hours were less than 400 when it was bought last year - I imagine that the extra hours are from bringing the boat from Belize to Florida.

Has anyone heard of charter companies 'fudging' the engine hours (or genset hours for that matter) when selling a boat?

[SailingHarmonie]

5400 is NOT crazy high hours. Granted the way most people abuse their boats it’s a bit rarer than it should be.

My last boat I sold with 8500 hours on the drive engine.

My current boat is pushing 10,000 on the drive engine, I have no plans to change it. I replaced the old genset with 9000 hours not because it had an issue, but I could not get parts for it any longer.

The only downside to a high hour engine is that people have been told that a marine diesel is on its last legs at 3000 or 4000 hours, so it greatly reduces the value of the boat.

So many of the repowers I have seen were unnecessary. Nothing intrinsically nothing wrong with the engine, they just got tired of minor repairs and thought a new engine would fix it.

[Tin Tin]

Originally Posted by will_q

Thanks, that's an interesting point about the low engine hours, I hadn't thought about it except that it sounded favorable.

The actual engine hours were less than 400 when it was bought last year - I imagine that the extra hours are from bringing the boat from Belize to Florida.

Has anyone heard of charter companies 'fudging' the engine hours (or genset hours for that matter) when selling a boat?

I have not heard of charter companies fudging engine hours. The boat is not normally owned by the charter company they just manage it on behalf of an owner. It is pretty important on a boat (and aircraft for example) to maintain accurate engine hours - to fudge them could lead to a big liability issue - there should be correspondence or a ships log, most service professionals state the engine hrs on the invoice, so should too the charter management company. If in doubt get an oil analysis done on the engines, surveyors often can organize this.