My daughter and her husband had just left to fly back to Portland, OR, after a week of sailing and exploring the upper Keys in Florida at the end of January 2024. We were charging batteries and making water the next day, waiting for a weather window to take us to the Bahamas when the generator just quit. Yep, out of the blue, it shut down like I had pressed the stop button, or it had run out of fuel. We weren’t out of fuel because the generator shares the same fuel tank our main engines use, and it was at least half full. After checking that the engine was getting fuel, I tried to start the engine and it wouldn’t start. I went to the genset locker to take a closer look while Lynette pressed the start button in the saloon. The starter was slowly cranking the engine, but the belt was slipping on the generator head. Sure enough, the generator head was seized up. It wouldn’t turn. I took the belt off and the engine started right up (thankful for that).
We spent the next few hours mulling over what our options were. We certainly didn’t want to cross over to the Bahamas without a generator, so we were either going to stay at Dinner Key or head back up to West Palm Beach to be next to our friends. We decided to go back up to West Palm Beach, as our friends live on a trawler with a crane and large upper deck; a great place to work on the genset while it is out of the boat. We can also have packages sent to their work for the parts we needed.
We made the trip back to West Palm Beach in two day-sail passages, stopping at Hillsboro Inlet as we had done the last time we headed north from Miami. We motored up as the wind was not favorable for sailing and had a very uneventful passage.
Once anchored in West Palm Beach, I proceeded to prep the genset for removal and investigated our options for repairing the genset. In a conversation with NextGen, the manufacturer, I learned that the generator head on our genset was no longer made, and they had a replacement generator head from another manufacturer with a complete retrofit kit for the installation. It was not inexpensive at $2700 plus shipping. As I saw it, we had three options:
1. Repair the existing generator head
2. Find a new or used exact replacement generator head
3. Order the replacement generator head kit from NextGen
NextGen had given us a contact in Ft Lauderdale, FL, to get the generator head repaired. They said it would cost between $200 and $300 to replace the bearings, but they suspected the windings needed to be redone, and that would cost at least $1200.
I found a brand-new exact replacement generator head on eBay for $750 plus shipping. You would think this was the best and most cost-effective option, but the genset had other issues. Being in a damp saltwater environment the aluminum mounting rails had completely disintegrated, leaving the genset not attached to the boat. These mounting rails were no longer made, but slightly different ones came in the kit for the replacement generator head. They were different because the new generator head was a different size than the old one. We were also encouraged by NextGen to purchase the new generator replacement kit, as the new generator head was a much better product than the older model that it replaces. They even said that they wished they had started using this new head when they started building generators. It was that much better.
I felt the only sensible option was to go for the replacement generator kit, so I ordered it and other parts from NextGen. I also decided to repaint the genset and replace all the hoses and wiring harness while the genset was out of the boat. The motor mounts were shot, so I added new ones to the NextGen order.
On Thursday, February 8th, with the help of another couple, four of us pulled the genset out of Cerca Trova and placed it on the top deck of our friend’s trawler. The clock was ticking, and I was hopeful to get it reinstalled later in the month. Of course, there were parts delays, but that gave me time to clean the engine and paint it. Plus, I was able to clean up the generator locker and put two coats of Gluvit, a waterproof epoxy coating, on the locker floor.
While the engine was out, I completely rebuilt the heat exchanger using Barnacle Buster to clean the coolant side of the cooling system and the heat exchanger element. It all went back together nice and clean with new coolant, new hoses, a new raw water impeller, a new thermostat, and a new exhaust elbow.
I picked up the generator head kit on February 19th, and I busied myself painting those parts in preparation for assembly. Once everything was painted, I bolted the new generator head on the engine and the genset was ready to install. Three weeks after I pulled the genset out of Cerca Trova it was back in, but there was still quite a bit of work to do before we could start it up. I had the electrical harness to finish building, the electrical connection to the boat, and the plumbing to hook up. Once that was done, I was ready to test the genset. Unfortunately, when I tried to start the genset, nothing happened. A little investigating led me to the start wire from the control panel didn’t have any electricity going through it. I had to tear out the cabinetry in the head to get to the wiring and replace the start wire. Once that was replaced, the genset started right up and we were back in business.
Of course, during this project our watermaker stopped working again for the 4th time since we’ve owned Cerca Trova, so we are now waiting on parts and for the high-pressure Clark Pump to be rebuilt by a watermaker company in Ft Lauderdale. I’m beginning to wonder if we will every make it to the Bahamas this season. Between bad weather and breakdowns, we’ve been in South Florida since the end of December 2023. It’s now late March 2024. Hopefully, our next article will be from the Bahamas. Fingers crossed.
Sailing into our next chapter 