The boat was a Lagoon 500 from CatCo. The tech guy said the bearing going bad caused the armature to rub against the field coils causing the electric short circuit and ensuing smoke. The unit eventually locked up.

I've chartered many boats from Catco and they have all been well maintained, including this one. Gensets get beat to death on charter boats and this one's time was up.

I'm not sure I've noticed smoke detectors on previous boats I've chartered either. I'm in the process of buying a boat and will certainly have smoke and heat detectors on board,