Inverter option ?

[Freeebird]

Bird it's like buying an electric car. No real need but you can brag about it.

Ah yes... inverter envy. Now I understand.

[Boatsb]

Ah yes... inverter envy. Now I understand.

Mines bigger.

and packs a large charger.

[saltshaker]

Mines bigger.

and packs a large charger.

But I can go nonstop with my gennie running.

[Freeebird]

Mines bigger.

and packs a large charger.

They don't call me sparky for nuthin'.

[Boatsb]

They don't call me sparky for nuthin'.

Sparks on a a gas boat scare me.

[MikeP]

"I think the Hatteras factory wasnt thinking most Hatts would be cruising full time. "

Although I didn't own a Hatt back then, talking to folks who did confirm that the common use was that before you left the dock you started the genny. You turned off the genny when the boat got back to wherever there was shore power. In some cases, that may have been several weeks. An inverter was not considered to be of any particular value at the time because the whole point of the genny was for there to be no difference in the operation/function of the boat whether you were on shore power or at anchor.

IMO it's simply the price of fuel that has made inverters more common. Nowadays it's pretty expensive to run a genny full time. It was our intent to do that when we bought our 53 and it's what the PO did. We did it for a couple of years but now, at around a gal/hour, the price of operating the boat goes up considerably - around 100 bucks a day for electricity!

[bobk]

Coming from a trawler, I knew the value of an inverter to a long distance cruiser so I had one installed before my first trip. Costs as follows:

2500W Victron inverter charger....$2200,
Labor, $700,
wires/switches, $300,
Yandina battery combiner $150,
six Workaholic GC batteries $415.

The inverter is in the ER in front of the starboard engine. Seven years and maybe 20,000 miles and no failures. All switching is automatic. It does not run the 220 volt appliances or air conditioners.

Several years later my son bought a 46' MY and installed his own Magnum inverter. It was time consuming because he had never done one before, but the vender (Marysville Inverter) guided him through it.

In a typical 6-8 hour cruising day, the starboard alternator keeps up with the demands of two refrigerators and miscellaneous electronics. Battery charging in the morning takes 1-1.5 hours of generator time depending on ambient temperature. Dinner prep takes maybe an hour and we buck up the house bank for 45 miinutes to an hour before retiring. The original battery set lasted six years on this regime.

Bobk

[Pascal]

To inverter or not depends on how you use the boat, as always...

In so fl where we always have a breeze, you don't really need AC during the day if you have a well ventilated boat like our classic hatt MYs except maybe in July thru sept. In winter, from nov. Thru march the staterooms are usually cool enough to be nice with just a fan. Most people think so Florida is hot, that s not entirely true because of breezes even in summer, in winter fronts are pretty predictable with typically 3 or 4 cool days and just 1 or 2 hot days. If the Bahamas, the breeze cools things off nicely as well thru out winter

Sleeping at night without the generator and equally as important the AC blowers humming is very nice.

Costwise, when I installed my inverter and dedicated bank, I cut genset use from 24 hours a day to 4 hours, and the fuel savings paid the inverter install in about a year.

There are other benefits like having a back up AC source if your boat only has one Genset and you spend a lot of time in the Bahamas on the hook. Also, it s nice to let the ER cool off for 12 to 18 hours so you can be more comfortable doing maintenance or inspections.

But of the typical boater, who doesn't spend much time away from the dock, running the Genset 24/7 doesn't make much of a difference which is why most production boats, don't come with inverters.

[Bill Herrin]

"Was it normal for a Hatteras to not come with an inverter?"

Back in those days inverters were very inefficient and it was (for Hatt, anyway) up to the dealers to install one if the buyer wanted one. Our boat had one installed by the original dealer - Hatteras of Lauderdale. It would kill the batteries in 4-5 hours, spinning (that's how it was done then) what looked pretty much like a big starter motor. The previous (2nd) owner had a big piece of tape across the inverter "on" switch at the panel with "DO NOT TURN ON) in huge black letters.

Your post brought back memories and not really good ones!

Back in the mid/early 70's we sold those motor/generators... dc motor driving a 110 generator from a company called 'Rediline' (at least that's the name that comes to mind).... I think we delivered about a dozen or so, they came in 500 watt and 1800 watt. I ended up with a big gouge in my (treasured) teak desk when a customer literally threw one he'd bought onto the desk top. Those were the only products that we wrote letters to everyone who bought one and offered to buy them back at full installed price..... I recall they were about 50% efficient and the big one could not only draw down a set of starting batteries quickly it could warp the plates of lower quality batteries too!! Amazing how technology has changed.....

[Freeebird]

Was it normal for a Hatteras to not come with an inverter?
or was this something that needed to be added as an option.
Was reading the manuals I got from Hatteras on this new 1991 52C , and low and behold.
No wonder I could not find it. The manuals do not even mention it has one installed.
Says you can get power via the Gen or Shorepower and that's it.
Only thing it mentions is the 12 or 24 volt junk necessary to run the boat

How hard is it to install one of these, and what appox cost?

After getting caught up in the issue of inverters, I just happened to read your OP. I'm assuming you just got a little mixed up, but if Hatteras sent you a manual on a 52C, you might wanna send it back since that's not what you have.