Yanmar upgrades
We have the upgrade from 56 hp Westerbeke to 75 hp Yanmar. I did not know there was a 100hp available. For motoring under normal conditions, the 75hp brings you to 7 to 8 knots easily, and you really have to pour on the power to get it to 8.5 to 9 knots. So, a bigger engine is not going to cruise faster, just burn more fuel. Nor will the egnine last longer, as the 75hp should last forever, and the 100hp at lower load is more likely to see fouling. My sense is that the weather conditions where one might use more than 75 hp might be to motor upwind in 30 knot winds and into heavy seas. Those would not really be conditions for full thorottle motoring, in my opinion. So, net net, the 75hp choice is plenty in my opinion, and even that choice for me was driven more by my good experience with Yanmar in the past, more than by engine hp. I have no complaints about Westerbeke which I never owned (except a genset I have now and which is fine so far)
