The field was limited to gasoline generators under 75 pounds. All of them had to have a protective plastic case and carrying handle. Clockwise from top right: The Yamaha EF1000iS, the Coleman Powermate 1850, the Briggs and Stratton 900 Watt Elite Series, the Honda Super Quiet EU2000i, and the Honda Super Quiet EU1000i.

It's been a few years since we last wrote about ultra-portable generators, but that doesn't mean we haven't been looking at them covetously all the while.

They’re more interesting, and more mainstream, it seems to us, than the big, high-capacity, permanently mounted gensets (usually diesel fueled) with dedicated wiring and through-hull exhausts, used to make electricity when the main engines are idle in the yachts of the idle rich. (Resentful? Us?) Mid-sized and even small rack-carried generators just don't seem to have a place–they're too heavy to lug around, too big to stow, too noisy, and too noxious.…