diesel "brands"

[Fred Ficarra]

As the owner of a 3GM30F Yanmar

I'll avoid praising it here. Love my engine but most if not all of us love our engines. At least modern diesels.Peggie as far as hours per year, I think a lot has to do with the hull type and location. With a plaining hull and high power you don't rack up the hours because the boat gets there quicker. And it also costs a hell of a lot more for fuel. That can lower operating time for many owners. Around the Puget Sound sail boats have a tough time getting to a purpose destination on sail power alone. The currents are tricky and adverse half the time. Passages are narrow and wind can be adverse or non existent. And because sailboats are almost always displacement hulls, (some MacGregors and Lancers excluded) their engines get used longer to get anywhere. It's kinda like logging hours in a Piper Cub. The hours the pilot logs are long but the distances not so long. Then compare that to a jet fighter. In other words, 'it depends'.

 

[patrick]

100 hrs per year is not much

From Lake Union to the San Juans for a week is easily half that. Desolation Sound could add 100 hours all by itself. It is 3-4 hours just getting through the locks. Add an hour waiting for bridges to open. Sailing there is out of the question if you plan to get there and back in a reasonable time. That adds 10 - 12 hours each way. A couple of hours per day to get around and charge the batteries and it adds up.Just an overnight trip to Liberty Bay could be 10 - 15 hours. A visit to Lake Washington could add 10 more. 20 -30 trips out a year could easily total to 250 to 350 hours per year.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Going nowhere fast

Gee, Patrick, seems you have a lot of obstacles up there We have had Aquavite for almost 8 years. Got her with 888 hours on the engine in 1998, 1 1986 boat, 12 years, 888 hours, is 74 hours per year. Don't know how the PO used the boat.Now we're at 1730 hours. 1730 - 888 = 842 hours in 7 12/ years = 112 hours per year. We use the boat at least once a week, motor out the estuary for 40 minutes, sometimes motor in sometimes sail back. Motored to Drake's Bay, from the Golden Gate Bridge last October, 34 nm, 6 or so hours, sailed back.It's all how you use your boat and, in many cases, where the puppy is parked! in comparison to sailing grounds. Stu

 

[David]

Our 2QM15 has glow plugs

And after warming them for 15-20 seconds, she fires quite readily.

 

[capt jimbo]

Pugeot Lehman 4D61

In my Vagabond 42, I have the pugeot lehman, which has been very reliable. But now getting parts have been very hard to get. Being no generic parts that will fit. Have decided to repower witht eh new Westerbeke 64A. It is a low rpm motor with hight torque. Will produce the same hp at 15 - 1800 rpm that took 3000rpm with my lehman. I think this is a great choice. So if any of you out there knows what gear ratio was with the Hurth transmission on my pugeot lehman and know what prop was used let me know. I know the prop is a 20/? . How about some help out there.

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Peugeot,,,

That's awfully French. You've got a problem. That's the engine that killed the Delorean before it started.

 

[Tom S]

Peggy I am not the 'average" boater

You are comparing me to too many other boaters you see in marina's. You know the type. Tied more often to the dock and 110VAC than to the hook. Thats not me. I take my boat out a lot and I sail alot. My girlfreind thinks I never turn on the engine enough Its a mistake comparing a real cruiser sailing his boat alot to a motorboater that uses 20 gallons an hour. Of course they don't use their engines more than 100 hours. That ALREADY costs them $5000 in fuel alone !!I am out each and every weekend (almost - maybe miss one or two ) I start in April and don't stop till late November. If I figure 6 months sailing, which is 24 weekends a year. Plus I do a week (or two) cruise in the summer That conservatively less than 2 hours engine time leaving the dock one way. Hell It takes me about 40 minutes just getting in and out of my marina/Harbor or manuevering and getting in and out of the Sand Hole in Llyods Neck NY.I can't recall exactly but I think I have about 2500 miles under my keel already (thats what my Raytheon knotmeter says and it didn't work for 3 months one summer).

 

[Tom S]

Damn forgot the picture !

I have a million others under sail, but I can only post one

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

You're making a false assumption, Tom

That powerboats are always either tied to the dock or burning fuel. Remember this old joke? As a powerboat was passing a sailboat, he called out, "where are you going?" The sailor answered, "we're already there." When sailors leave the dock, they go out to sail...they're always underway except to anchor for the night. But except for ski boats and runabouts pulling wakeboards, tubes etc, the average powerboater has a destination--a cove where he either drops an anchor or rafts up with other boats and stays there for the whole weekend. The big sportfishers that go 50 miles offshore prob'ly burn more fuel than anyone else (although they have big diesel engines, which are a lot more efficient than gas) only run long enough to get to their fishing grounds, then only run trolling motors till it's time to come back. So even when gas was only $.60-$.80/gal, the average weekend powerboater didn't stay the dock and still only put about 100 hrs/year on his engines. At today's fuel prices, though, I wouldn't be surprised if more powerboats AND sailboats do stay at the dock. But as more power and sail boats became "floating condos," that was starting to happen even before fuel prices started rising.

 

[Bill N]

Engine Hours correct as Sailor not Powerboater

I had not expected to stimulate such a off-topic discussion. However, since I did....I belive the engine hours of about 500 is correct, as I am a Sailor and not a Powerboater (anymore anyway), And I am not a 'slip' potato either.I have put over 2,500 nautical miles on the hull since 1994 (per the 'log' on my current Raytheon ST50 knotmeter).In fact the engine hours will appear even more unbelievable when I mention the boat had about 300 hours on it when purchased in 1993. Whereas I cannot be sure, I believe my engine hour meter has always functioned and my more recent cruise logs confirm it has been 'clicking' forward over the past 3 years at least.Thankfully where I sail in NJ, you can sail almost all the time with little need for the engine. I usually only need to run the engine for about 15 minutes to get out of the marina before I can then raise the sails and shut down the ol' noisy 'iron genny' and often even less to get back into the marina after a day of sailing in the bay.In fact in my yacht club, I'm known as '18 mile Bill', cause I went out that far on our 2005 trip to Cape May, just to avoid having to run the engine.Hope this helps and best regards to all...

 

[Tom S]

Bill, that sounds about right.

I know people can have older boats with low engine hours, as was mentioned before its variable on lots of factors, sometimes it depends on where your slip is and sometimes its where you are transiting. Though as much as I'd like to sail up and down the East River I will confess to running my engine when going through Hell's Gate north of Roosevelt Island I am on the boat right now and double checked my 'log' on my current ST60 knotmeter and I was wrong it actually says 3400 nm. (not including 3 months one summer when it was broke) ..... I guess I've used my boat a lot the past 5 summers So when you really look at the actual number of engine hours vs miles transited we are not that far off.