ENGINES

Rob Squires, #96, Head-Over-Heels

Rob installed a Yanmar engine in #96. You can view his art work in the Project Showcase.

Mike

We have a 10 hp Farryman diesel. In most condiitons we easily do hull speed at 2/3rds throttle (or less). I think even if we were going into heavy seas and strong winds, it would do at least 2/3rds of hull speed easily. Even if it did half, I'd rather have a 10 hp than pay extra and overkill with 20 hp. If I were replacing the Farryman, I'd do the 1GM (or whatever its number is) Yanmar diesel at 9 hp. It'd be plenty. Before we put the diesel in, we had a 8 hp outboard. It pushed the boat at 2/3rds throttle at hull speed. No problems.

Skip Baker, #3, White Cap

I have a Westerbeke 10/2 as I had mentioned in an earlier e-mail. As you said, it will do hull speed at around 3,000 RPMs in smooth water. The 'smooth water' thing is the rub. In a three foot chop that is made up of close set waves, it drops down severely. I think that is where a 20 hp Yanmar would make the difference. The extra power would also offset what would be lost by going to a larger alternator for quicker charging. I have also had some support problems with Westerbeke that would keep me from choosing them for any repower project in the future.

William O'Toole, #696,

Regarding engines in tritons i have a triton #696 present engine is 18 h.p. westerbeke diesel 120 hrs. this is my first season owning the boat have put 30hrs on it previous owner installed it in 1996 and says it has performed well i have found this to be my experience as well.

Rob Gagnon

I replaced my A4 with a new Volvo-Penta MD2010 rated 10 HP at 3800 RPM.

The engine beds were too narrow so I removed them completely and glassed in new ones of epoxy-laminated plywood. Calculating the position and slope was the hardest part but when I installed the new engine the alignment was nearly perfect with just the most minor adjustment. I have some tricks on this if anyone is interested. Do not cut out your old beds until you get your new measurements - which are derived from the old beds.

The size of the MD2010 is perfect - I am using the same shaft and propeller. I am using my old fiberglass fuel tank with no problems. The exhaust routes from the elbow down under the engine and into a vetus water lift which fits perfectly. I am tempted to install a temperature sender in the waterlock itself so I can see if the saltwater intake or impeller is fouled. From the water lift under the engine the exhaust rises to a 180 elbow mounted on the cockpit locker side of the bulkhead just below the bridgedeck.

As for performance, I am still evaluating it. When the wind is 25 knots on bow I have trouble making headway at 3500 RPM. My prop is not in good shape and thanks to an excellent person I will be trying a differant prop soon - both are 13 x 6 by mine has worn to 12.25 diameter and is rough generally.

If anyone wishes to check out the installation, you can come see it at Brisbane marina anytime.

As for cost, the engine was $3795 not including tax. Add, shaft saver/spacer, exhaust, shift lever,

and so on and it cost about $4500.

George T. Jones, #236, CA IRA

I just purchased it a couple of weeks ago and was wondering about engine performance myself. Fortunately, I received the opportunity to test it in strong wind and moderate seas just two days after I closed on it. It was at the tail end of one of the left over hurricanes that came through the Chesapeake bay a couple of weeks ago. After a fun morning and early afternoon of flying around the Deltaville area of the bay I found myself several miles NE of Deltaville with the wind just howling out of the SW (it had been increasing all day and it was now raining hard). I thought to myself that this would be the perfect time to test the upgraded engine that the previous owner had installed in my new boat.

The engine is a 1994 Westerbeke Universal 3M-20. Producing 18 HP at a max RPM of 3600 with no load on the engine ( although mine goes to 3800 - I think my tach might need some adjusting as many people have told me that the factory governor settings are usually dead on) The prop is a two blade 13" 10 pitch design made of bronze. Hull and prop were clean from the marine survey a week prior to this sail.

I turned on the engine and put it just a little above idle (1200 RPM) to keep the bow into the wind and dropped the sails. Now came the fun part. Once the engine was good and warmed up ( 15 mins while I messed with the sails) I brought it up to 3000 RPM and pointed the bow into the teeth of the wind and waves. I'm a new sailor and not particularly adept at guessing wave height and wind speed yet so I turned on my handheld VHF radio to the weather station - waves 3 -5 feet and wind steady at 30 knots. The visual was wind whipping spray from the tops of the whitecaps and walls of water crashing into me as the bow dropped into each new wave ( The dodger was not set up and I don't think I have ever been so wet ) The speed readings in knots on the GPS ranged between 5.1 and 5.7. When I rounded the point and turned for Doziers Marina the speed climbed to 6.5 knots as I was now abeam to the wind. Engine speed climbed slightly to 3200 RPM as I did this. I dropped engine speed down to 2800 and cruised in at 5.8 knots the rest of the way. I arrived at the dock very happy with the engine's performance.

I also just finished a 32.5 nautical mile cruise under power to bring the boat down to its new marina in Glouster point. 6 knots at 2900 RPM. I tried this with the sails up just to see what would happen and GPS speed climbed to 7.3 knots as my wife and I surfed along the swells. (lots of fun)

Further checking on the web seems to indicate that this engine and prop combination is well suited to the boat. 80% power on a 3600 RPM engine is 2880 RPM and this seems capable of moving the boat at hull speed in most conditions. If it turns out that my tach is slightly off and I should be operating it at 80% of 3800 RPM's ( 3040 RPM's) this produces speeds around 6.2 knots (also fine in my book - although the stern starts sinking into the stern wave if I go much over this)

All in all I like the engines performance and it is really quiet. The only other engine I would probably look at is the similar sized Yanmar ( I hear they are really good! )

Skip Baker, #3, White Cap

I read in the whole discussions on diesels and think I should add my two cents. Take into bearing that I am no mechanic...

I have a 1983 Westerbeke 10/2 with approximately 800 hours on it. Practically new by wear standards. About five years ago the alternator fried. No sweat; just buy a new one. Turns out it had a very weird bolt pattern (7 and 11 o'clock positions). Turns out that they were no longer made. After searching for over a year, I finally called the tech help at Westerbeke. His answer; yep they were no longer made. Nope he didn't have an idea how to fix the problem. His answer to what I should do .... buy a new Westerbeke. When I finally pinned him down that this is what his six figure salary paid for, he suggested a marine repair facility in Marblehead, Ma., They told me how to make an adapter mount. In five minutes. On the phone.

Westerbeke is more than secretive about its replacement parts, much made to Westerbekes standard and not cross-matchable to non factory replacement parts. For instance, they want $144 for a replacement tach. It took me three months, but I found one for a little over a hundred.... so I have a bit of a bad taste about Westerbeke support. The other thing is power. The little (little being the operative word) 10hp/2cyl is fine on smooth water..... will transport the boat at hull speed no problemo. Give it a short three foot chop and the boat almost comes to a stop with a particularly strong wave. Changing the prop to a 14x8 from the 13&1/2x8 seems to have helped a bit.

One must also take into account that often the hp of the engine is raw hp... before the raw water pump/alternator/transmission friction takes its toll, which may be as much as 5hp if a large alternator is used. So my 10 hp probably is about 5-7 hp at the prop... less than many sailboat outboards.

Were it my choice, I would damn the expense and put a Yanmar 20hp in... and have a Balmar 75-100 amp charger put in professionally at the time of engine replacement so that it would be covered by the mechanic's warranty. That way it would reduce to a minimum the amount of charging needed to keep the batteries up, perhaps to the point that the power used to start the engine would be replaced by the time that the one is out of the marina and the sails go up.... and give me an honest 10-12 hp at the prop under military power (3/4 of the max rpm of a given engine). I have also heard nothing but very good comments about Yanmar support.... even for obsolete engines. Again, I state the caveat that I am no diesel mechanic or engine expert. These are just observations gained on my experiences... kind of a what-not-to-do. *S*

Charlie and Laura McCarren, #447, Sur la Mer

Just want to add our two cents in on the Westerbeke. We had a 20B2 installed last January. Our prop is a three bladed 12 x 5. This pushes the boat at 5.5 - 6 knots at 2500 - 3000 rpms in flat water. Going into seas she drops maybe .5 - 1 knot. We are very pleased with this motor. Fits in the engine compartment well, all dipsticks and filters are accessable. Besides, the fuel system is self bleeding, great after changing fuel filters.