if you're anchored (or parked) near me and can somehow hear or smell my generator, just let me know and I'll gladly turn it off or relocate. Would you do the same?
We would and have. We've not relocated because we're never that desperate to run the generator. But there have been times when we've run it at a dock and before we started it we told the people on boats downwind of us (if there were any) that we were going to run it for an hour or less and if the noise or exhaust bothered them let us know and we'd shut it down. Most people say fine, no problem. On a few occasions someone would say no problem but then after it had been running for awhile came and said the exhaust smell was getting to them (nobody's ever complained about noise). So we shut it down right away.
With not a lot of exceptions it's not been the slow-turning diesel generators that have been the most annoying. Yes, sometimes someone has a particularly loud exhaust system but for the most part the low burble of a well-muffled generator is not obnoxious. The exhaust can be, of course.
But the worst are the high-speed Hondas and the like. It's like having a chain saw or trail bike running next door. Even when they are in an enclosure--- and most people don't bother with that but simply set them on the foredeck or the dock--- that high-pitched buzz gets old really fast even when it's not particularly loud, and it can really diminish the whole reason one came to the marine park or the anchorage in the first place.
The aforementioned confrontations we've witnessed were, if memory serves, all with people running Honda-type generators for hours on end. In one particularly memorable case after a boater refused to shut his Honda down after several hours of running it and even after a warning by the park ranger a particularly irate boater simply walked over and kicked the thing over the bullrail into the water. He got a round of applause from every boat at the dock.
I don't advocate doing that although we were among the boaters who were glad that he did. But I can certainly understand the fellow's frustration.
We don't need air conditioning up here but for perhaps a few days in July and August so I venture to say 99 percent of the recreational boats here don't have it, big yachts excepted. If we boated in an area where air conditioning was important I would certainly understand the need for a generator running all the time. We'd most likely be one of those boats as both my wife and I despise heat.
But up here it seems the people running their generators for hours on end are doing so mainly for entertainment--- TVs mostly--- or they simply need it now and then to make a cup of coffee or whatever so figure it's easier just to leave it on the whole time instead of starting it when it's needed and stopping it when it's not. It's pretty hard for people in an anchorage or park at one of our more remote islands to have much tolerance for someone running a generator--- particularly the buzzing Honda-types--- for hours on end simply so the kids can play video games or watch a movie or the wife can re-heat her tea in the microwave or whatever.
