Story by Andrew Holland / July 18, 2018
It’s not unfamiliar for anyone working in the yachting industry to run into the question of what generator size is required on a particular boat. An answer will depend on a few variables, such as the boat’s size, where the boat will be spending most of its time, and whether there will be access to shore power. However, the most telling question a sailor can ask is how often air conditioning is needed.
In our client’s experiences, they often over-power their boats—meaning they will equip their boat with a generator more powerful than is actually required. This results in a more costly and unnecessary expense for an owner. But how can one determine which size is right?
The first question we ask clients is how many evenings per year they think they will need to run a generator for air conditioning while they are at anchor. The answer is often when clients are stuck in windless marinas where there isn’t the necessary airflow into the boat to cool it down that one resorts to turn the A/C on, not just anchoring in a place known to be hot and humid.
However, while dockside you’ll have the ability to plug your boat into shore power, so you will not be dependent on your generator. To bring your boat to a frigid chill, you may need as much as 15 amps of power, all depending on how large your boat is.
The best piece of advice we can give to those in the market to buy a boat is to get sufficient air conditioning to completely chill the boat dockside and get a smaller generator to run one or two of the air conditioning units for the rare days that are uncontrollably hot or humid at anchor.
Have a question you want answered by our expert brokers? Drop an email to info@multihullcompany.com today!
Was a pleasure working with Andrew Hodgdon as buyers agent for our recent multihull purchase. Very knowledgeable of this space and for sure my first call buying or selling a yacht.
The multihull company has been great to work with. They were very helpful in every stage of our purchase from instill showings to purchase. Karl Reed, Andrew Hodgon and Andrew Holland were great sources of information and helped us find our dream Catamaran. Thank you Multihull!
Sold my L42 here with the excellent help and support of TMCs Croatia sales manager “Zee”. Despite my boat docked on the dry in Montenegro, in winter and in a challenging market, TMC and Zee managed to get her sold, managing the entire process from taking pictures and video’s, putting her out there on the web, prepping her and managing all for inspections….down to the final hand-over documents and managing the escrow payments when all boxes were ticked! Very professional, very helpful (Zee went above and beyond to make sure he delivers excellent service), responsive and successful. Thanks TMC!
We purchased our lagoon 410 through the multihull company, Andrew Hodgdon was the listing’s broker. From the start till the end of the process he was upfront honest and accommodating. Our situation was unique and required a bit more leg work. Andrew was always easy to get a hold of and willing to help. It was a pleasure working with a highly knowledgeable broker that values integrity. I highly recommend him.
Successful relationships cannot exist without it. At The Multihull Company we base every relationship on a firm commitment to earning and retaining our client’s trust.
Advice of any kind is valuable only when grounded in hard-won expertise. It too, must be trustworthy. Trust and expertise define the heart and soul of The Multihull Company. We are a team of skilled professionals who thrive on providing expert, trustworthy advice and service to catamaran and trimaran sailors around the globe.
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