Fairline Phantom 32 Twin Volvos - what horsepower?

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andrewbarker

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Hoping someone can give a definitive answer on this.

Fairline Phantom 32 with twin Volvo AQD40A diesels & 280 outdrives. I think these were always rated at 130HP.

The boatyard thinks they are 165HP. They have checked the boat's paperwork right back to Fairline's build docs which, they say, rate the engines as 165HP.

AFAIK, it was the AQAD40s which made 165HP. Can anyone throw any light on this please?

Thanks
 
andrewbarker said:
Hoping someone can give a definitive answer on this.

Fairline Phantom 32 with twin Volvo AQD40A diesels & 280 outdrives. I think these were always rated at 130HP.

The boatyard thinks they are 165HP. They have checked the boat's paperwork right back to Fairline's build docs which, they say, rate the engines as 165HP.

AFAIK, it was the AQAD40s which made 165HP . Can anyone throw any light on this please?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi Yes, the AQAD40B is a 165hp/123kw motor,

NBs
 
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Thanks all - I'm going with the Forum consensus on 124 - 130HP unless something really surprising turns up. Strange that Fairline thought that they were installing 165HP engines!
 
andrewbarker said:
Thanks all - I'm going with the Forum consensus on 124 - 130HP unless something really surprising turns up. Strange that Fairline thought that they were installing 165HP engines!
Click to expand...

AQD is 130ho and has a small oblong heat exchanger and no intercooler .
AQAD was built in 158 hp and 165 hp has an intercooler and a much larger heat exchanger which has a cylindrical rubber end cap at the rear , as far as I’m aware the sedan 32 has the 165 hp engines .
 
..according to the MBM publication "35 Years of Motor Cruisers" the most popular engines were the 165 HP engine option.
The 135 HP 40A heat exchanger is a square box enclosing a fragile folded brass honey comb radiator matrix type similar to that found in older motor cars.The later more powerful "B" engines had a more conventional hollow tube device.

Hull by John Bennet and capable of 27-30 knots, is the same on the Phantom 32 and Sedan 32, Sedan was more commonly fitted with the 135 HP engines and gave around 25 knots.
Club member has Phantom and claims it can still achieve those numbers.
According to some VP spec sheets, the 135 HP is a possibly a tad optimistic.
 
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Thanks all for the responses. Just to be sure, I've uploaded (I hope) a pic of one of the engines. Seems definitely like a 130hp AQD40 according to your info.
 

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My parents had a 32 Phantom back in the 1980's and early 90's so I've always an interest in these boats, the Sedan 32 too.

Most diesel boats have AQD40s - which were rated at 130hp. I think these in 2018 might be a bit under-powered by todays standards but 'just about planing' should be possible.

Towards the end of the Phantom and Sedan productions (1982-84) some were fitted with AQAD40s, which were rated at 165hp for outdrives. I think some of these might also have had very early duo-props.

I've noticed that some Phantoms were re-engined with AQAD41s, 200hp each and these seem to fly along at the high 20s (knots) easily.
 
andrewbarker said:
Thanks all for the responses. Just to be sure, I've uploaded (I hope) a pic of one of the engines. Seems definitely like a 130hp AQD40 according to your info.
Click to expand...



Had a Princess 33 with a pair of 130 HP 40A on 280 outdrives. The best ever speed achieved ever , having just been dropped into the water after a jetwash/anti-foul and not a lot of fuel/water/ junk aboard was 16 knots, doubt that you would see much more.
Very reliable,if a bit smoky on start up, had nearly 4500 hours on the clock when sold.
Keep an eye on the those heat exchangers they rarely play up, but first sign of problem is raw water being forced into the internal cooling system.
On my boat the plastic overflow bottle from the header tank mysteriously kept filling up.
 
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Interesting! But surely a top speed of 16kts means a cruise of about 12kts, which is actually not on the plane at all?
In other words, doesn't that relegate it to being virtually a displacement boat?
 
andrewbarker said:
Interesting! But surely a top speed of 16kts means a cruise of about 12kts, which is actually not on the plane at all?
In other words, doesn't that relegate it to being virtually a displacement boat?
Click to expand...

Yup...then procede to fill it up with junk and add a little weed.
However if you keep the speed down, the engines can be suprisingly economical. Old logs covering six or seven years of ownerhip show boat average of 3 gallons per hour .
WOT gave 8 GPH and at tickover (on the Thames) a measly consumption of just over a gallon per hour.
 
andrewbarker said:
Interesting! But surely a top speed of 16kts means a cruise of about 12kts, which is actually not on the plane at all?
In other words, doesn't that relegate it to being virtually a displacement boat?
Click to expand...

The lower powered version will allegedly plane, but probably empty and when new. At 35 years old with a bit of excess weight, not a chance, so 10kt is probably about it in real terms...
 
My parents also had a 32 Phantom with the 130hp engines. She was a 1979 boat and would regularly spin up to an indicated 25 knots but that was pre gps so I don’t know how genuine that was.

Fabulous boats
 
My parents Phantom was a 1974 model with 2 x 130hp volvo petrols on 270 drives. We had her from 1986 until about 1992-ish.

With 2 adults and 4 of us sprogs she never really planed with all the gear on board. Good for about 15/16 knots before the cylinder heads went (was a common feature of those 130hp petrols).

A similar Phantom but with 170hp 6-cylinder petrols was good for high 20's.

The previous owner of our Phantom did use it for water skiing out of Brighton but it was stripped right back at the time.

Another friend in the boat club had a 1979 Phantom, also with 2 x 130hp volvo petrols and she was once clocked at 23knots with no fuel, no water, no kit and 2 people on board.

At the time, I wished my parents had gone for one with larger petrols but we had some great family times on board and we made the most of what we had at the time.
 
My parents had their Phantom from 1980 until 1992 I think - very happy times on board and she had the diesels which I guess performed better than petrols? I still have a dream of buying one to re engine but the sums don't seem to add up.

Nothing much like them any more.
 
Yep - thanks OG. That's the boat I went to look over. Boats.co.uk very fair company. James Barke took me over the boat himself although it's only worth peanuts in the grand scale of Boats.co.uk business.
 
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