Birchwood 33. Pros and cons please

Flynnbarr said:
HT in front of the 6354 means the engines are basically…in layman’s terms-laid over on their sides to fit in certain boats……a lot of the parts for this engine are unique……hard to get or unobtainable.
Perkins 6354 (non HT ) are different and spares are available.
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Did not one of the engines on a twin set up run backward, presume because the reverse gear only worked in one direction.
 
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oldgit said:

Or the rarer SEDAN.


Both built like brick wotsits and from memory considerably better access to the engines and gearboxes than the other vessel you were considering.
We have examples of both on our moorings which seem to have with stood the passing of the years pretty well.
Always a few on the market and not silly prices either, need to buy on condition.
Only caveat(Finnbarr might know) some/all were 24 volts ? with some converted to 12V ?
Do remember a skipper having in his garage a complete HT engine just in case, when he went to the great marina in the sky, the garage was "tidied up".
The engine went round to the local scrapyard .
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Guy I knew back along was owner (iirc) of the local Ferrari dealership in Weybridge, he bought a new one of those and brought it to the Thames Court Shepperton,we had a very good afternoon getting totally ratarsed aboard....it was a great boat, name was "A Touch Too Much" maybe someone recalls it.
 
billskip said:
Guy I knew back along was owner (iirc) of the local Ferrari dealership in Weybridge, he bought a new one of those and brought it to the Thames Court Shepperton,we had a very good afternoon getting totally ratarsed aboard....it was a great boat, name was "A Touch Too Much" maybe someone recalls it.
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No, but Church Square in Shepperton was a frequent haunt of mine when I had to come down to the head office in Sunbury, a friend lived on the island there, he was a product manager for our company before he moved to EMI. The Anchor Hotel had crap rooms but the food was sublime. After his famous ride to London Dick Turpin stayed at the Anchor Hotel - don't think the rooms have changed since then, The Disraeli Room is quite impressive, had a few functions in there over the years.

oldgit said:
Did not one of the engines on a twin set up run backward, presume because the reverse gear only worked in one direction.
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Yep, the starboard engine runs backward, the gearboxes have a slightly different gearing going astern,
 
Alicatt said:
No, but Church Square in Shepperton was a frequent haunt of mine when I had to come down to the head office in Sunbury, a friend lived on the island there, he was a product manager for our company before he moved to EMI.
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Know it well, I lived on the island,...maybe our paths have crossed....
 
Broom 35 Sedan’s had vertical engines so no horizontal nonsense. 145/185hp, later ones were range 4’s.

Interesting run out version was the Broom Solent with a different layout with an island double and a bunk bed cabin. They had Volvo tamd40’s.
 
billskip said:
I moved on late 80's down to West Country, so don't recall, kids moved into Weybridge and I didn't go back to Shepperton for about 10 years.
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I started going there in the mid 90's for Thorn Security, later ADT, then got promoted from the Glasgow office and moved to head office in Sunbury, was there up to 2005 when I retired. I used to shoot arrows for the Spelthorne Archers at the BP grounds.
Guy I worked with was a David M. who lived on the island
 
Ferris said:
Broom 35 Sedan’s had vertical engines so no horizontal nonsense. 145/185hp, later ones were range 4’s.

Interesting run out version was the Broom Solent with a different layout with an island double and a bunk bed cabin. They had Volvo tamd40’s.
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One of the reasons we sold Transocean 37 was those twin single berths in the forecabin, even with a infill board and cushion it was a pain, did not help that small people then kept mysteriously turning up and needed more berths.
The next boat, the P35 had a twin bed but canted to one side.
It took several decades , several large shedloads of cash and Six boats
Regal 25. (Deadful twin petrol heap with the Devils Black anchors) Nothing but unreliable grief but loads of fun.
Princess 25 (Cracking little V6 Petrol boat with single VP outdrive)
Princess 33. ( As above with twin Diesels on flaky instant dissolve in water 280T outdrives)
Having finally learnt the hard and expensive lesson about O.......s
Transocean 37 (Solid but slowww with Perkins on Shafts) Not a single issue in 5 years of ownership.
Princess 35 ( The First proper grown up boat) Twin VP diesels on shafts.
ACM 38
...............to finally get the all important Island Bed.
Lesson learnt is that newer boats do not result in any fewer problems, just that the same problems cost far more to fix.

The Transocean was Broom 37/38 (it was bigger in Australia) moulded by Aquafibre, early Broom hulls were all Aquafibre hulls.?

The days when boats got to Earls Court by water , not to Excel shrinkwrapped on the back of a lorry.


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