Wondering how many of you are still running your Westerbeke's? Mine is still running real strong, but in the strong currents of the Columbia River, it is lacking. The motor hours are unreadable. Anyway, just curiosity.
Westerbeke 10 HP Diesel
- Thread starter Bigjer40
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How close to hull speed does your Westerbeke get you? Just asking because say you achieve 90% of hull speed with it, more HP will get you closer to 100% but that might mean only .5 - 1.0 knot or so better through the water. A more powerful power plant is most useful for getting that extra headway when pressing into the wind and/or chop. Or accelerating/braking quicker. But on a calm day, maybe not all that much change in max through the water speed can be realized. That extra 1kt however might make a real difference if you heading up against a 3-4 kt current. Now you are going say 3kts over ground instead of 2kts. Either way its a slow battle! For me the current demons are courtesy of the tides pushing into relatively narrow SF Bay water channels. Often 3.0 - 3.5 kts max current under the bridge. If flooding and also against the wind, close-hauling out the gate sometimes can't be done on my boat!
Mine is still running strong pushing a 12" X 7" 3-blade and will hit hull speed on a clam day with a clean bottem. I also have 1700 hours on it.
I'm not really sure what my hull speed is. I have all other specs, but not hull speed. I do know against current (2 mph) at 2500 to 3000 RPM I average 2 to 2.5 mph over ground (via gps) while motoring. Engine doesn't sound very good at or over 3K rpms.
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