Engine hours - low V’s high?

[Rob H 37]

A mate of Mines been looking at a couple of Sunseeker’s with KAD 44’s, 5 or 6 years old – the two seem to have different merits in spec and price, but a key differentiator is engine hours, so:

1. Should he be swayed by the nice low engine hours of a little used boat, or…
2. Should he take the view that a more regularly used boat is likely be prone to less problems and greater reliability?

Our own debates rumbled on around the varied merits - what’s the view/verdict?

 

[Roy]

Neither really. What counts is condition of engines in relation to hours run and that being backed up by either good service history... or non, in case of poor engines. Expert scrutiny required by someone with the know how.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Whatever the received wisdom about a well used boat being more reliable, there's no question that a low hours boat sells better than a high hours one. However, on a 6 yr old boat, I would be a bit concerned if it had less than 200hrs as it has likely been left unused for long periods. On the other hand, if it had more than 800hrs, I would start to worry about things going wrong, not only the engine but all other equipment in the boat. The engines may be fine but domestic equipment like fridges, water and toilet pumps pumps, heating etc etc may be heading for high cost replacement
FWIW, we bought a 4yr old boat last year with 130hrs on the clocks and I was concerned about problems occuring when we started to use the boat more but, apart from an alternator failure which could have happened to any engine, everything's been fine, touch wood
The important thing, as Roy says, is to get an engine survey done by a competent engineer and this must include an oil analysis. If the engines check out, I'd always favour the low hours boat

 

[Vagabond]

Condition and servicing are key

the problems with underused engines is the moisture inside that corrodes the engine from the inside, valve stems etc. Seals go as well if not used especially hydraulic ones.

 

[ari]

There are two types of boats regarding engine hours.

They're either very low.

Or they're ridiculously low!

People talk about boats with over 1,000 engine hours as high, but you look at commercial boats like Pilot boats often with similar types of engine, there was a 33ft Pilot boat in Plymouth a while ago with TAMD 41's in.

That particular boat had (at that time) 15,000 engine hours. The Volvo guys that looked after it told me that once it reached 25,000 hours they might start checking for wear in the valves etc.

Comparing a boat with 200 hours to one with 800 hours is a little like comparing a car with 500 miles and one with 2,000 miles and saying "do you think I should avoid the really high mileage one"?

Saying that however, it does have an effect on secondhand values simply because it is a comparative point of reference between two boats.

Where it does have more relevence is in the fact that the boat with 800 hours is likely to have had more wear on upholstery, carpets etc than its 200 hour counterpart.

I'd personally always prefer a boat to have more hours up however, diesels in particular like to be used.

Ari

 

[Nautical]

Re: Engine hours - low V’s high?

Hello, my first post.

I would always try to go for something that has had regular use. Oil burners left for long periods especially over winter months without use can give more trouble than they are worth. Bought a 5yr old boat once with only 110 hrs on it and it was a pig. It had'nt been used for two years and everything was rusted to heck. Similarly had a an older displacement boat with over 2000hrs on a mermaid and ran sweet as a nut, never gave a moments bother.

My rule of thumb is to try and run the engines at normal running temp (not just starting and running at tickover on the berth) every two weeks, also a good excuse to get out on the water.

 

[tcm]

yep, a key differentiator is engine hours, daft as it may seem. But actuallty, i think that general condition is a better feel - it needs to be used enough so that faults have been sorted, but not used so much that it seems to have been charterered - a balance, as Deleted User says

Sepretly, if the two squeakers are otherwise about the same price - i wonder if they are both a bit overpriced? Of all uk brands, sunseeker is the best at reaching out beyond the boat mags to the flush-feeling types and sell fun in the sun to impulse buyers, and sometimes the love it and sometimes they just don't, hence there are few mad-coloured boats for exasmnple that people just want rid of. It's nopt a hopeless ides to leave a message for boats in a marina which you like the look of.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I dont think you can make blanket statements like that. I nearly bought a boat last year which had 'only' 900hrs on the clocks but an engine survey/oil analysis showed up that it needed major rebuild work estimated at £35k. The surveyor told me that he was seeing plenty of engines in the 1000-2000hr range which were needing major rebuild work. IMHO, there is a big difference between the traditional low speed diesel engine luggers of yore and the high speed highly tuned engines of today. I dont believe that the latter are capable of giving the service life that the older engines could
People often point to the many tens of thousands of hours that industrial diesel engines last before rebuilds and compare that to marine engines but what they dont realise is that industrial engines are substantially derated compared to marine engines. The same engine rated to 300hp in marine spec may only be rated to 150 - 200hp in industrial spec.
There are three main factors affecting engine wear, no. of working hours being one of them, the others being no. of cold starts (because subtantial wear takes place when the engine is cold) and age (materials degrade with time). It would be wrong to assume that a high hours engine is necessarily in a better condition than a low hours engine without taking account of the service history of that model of engine and how it had been used

 

[KevB]

Personally I can't see that engine hours makes a great deal of difference to the internal workings of an engine, unless we are talking extreme number of hours (10's of thousands). I'd rather have a boat with a 1000 hours with nice clean serviced engines than a similar model with only 200 hours that have been given the minimum attention required.
I don't buy the idea that a boat with less hours is going to be in better overall condition either. If you take it to the extreme, a boat used regularly for the weekends and holidays with good hours may get 150 days use, a live-aboard of a similar model with only 50 hours a year engine use is going to get 365 for everything else......

I don't think it's rocket science picking the good from the bad, We all have an idea of what you should expect the condition to be even if the idea has come from camparing different boats. As long as the condition is good for the age/price/type and you get an oil survey and you are happy the condition is what you expect, buy it.