The last two weeks have been been dominated by our search for a replacement generator. We have an Onan (American) 6.5kva fitted by Amel and our ideal would be to replace with Onan 7kva as the 6.5kva is no longer made.
It really is dominating our lives at the moment because without a source of independent power we are limited in our ability to manoeuvre. For now we're staying in the marina while researching and reaching out to suppliers for availability and price quotes.
To date we have found that Onan in the US have a lead time of between 15 and 18 months and are not taking orders. The suggested reason is lack of components which would be made in China. Northern Lights are similar and made in the Netherlands. Their lead time is 6 to 9 months. Phasor are based in Florida, make a product that is very similar to Onan and they can ship to St Martin in 4 to 5 weeks.
David has also found that Amels were, unusually, designed to have an isolated ground system on their generators. Anything else would cause undesirable erosion of any metal parts which are in contact with salt water, known as galvinomic reaction. It has the unwanted potential to affect through hulls, the propeller and the transmission leg.
Normally generators are made to conform to a negative grounding system and to cross over to the isolated ground version requires an add kit of electronic wizardry. Our current Onan has this kit installed.
By contacting European Onan stockists we have found one model in the UK and they understand and can fit the isolated ground system. Unfortunately the dimensions are bigger than the current footprint and would be difficult to fit in. We found the exact model we would like from a supplier in mainland Europe, but it took them a month to send a quote and a request for cost to ship to the Caribbean has never been answered.
The agent for Phasor in Florida was fast with a response, fast with a quote and ready to take our order. However, the conversation about our need for an isolated ground system was more torturous than having a tooth extracted. The agent's salesman couldn't comprehend the science of the electronics and passed the enquiry to the manufacturer's technical experts. Their reply was that in their opinion it wasn't necessary.
At this stage we were pulling our hair out, staring despondently into the distance, so turned our attention to another problem.
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