Front Engine Sailboats Any Good?

I have sailed many boats with engines in the "usual place" ie under the companionway, but also a few with engines in less usual places.

A Yamaha 30 that sailed beautifully with a quite light single cylinder Yanmar under the forepeak berths, very very long propshaft. A seriously good boat unless you want lots of engine power. Yes - same Yamaha that makes motorcycles and musical instruments, and a very well built boat.

Several older boats with engines under a box that forms the saloon table. This gives fantastic engine access for servicing, and the weight is in an excellent place. I rather liked this.

And a 28 ft Cheoy Lee that had the engine in the aft lazarette locker with a weird Z-drive. Not impressed.
 
jwilson said:
And a 28 ft Cheoy Lee that had the engine in the aft lazarette locker with a weird Z-drive. Not impressed.
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I vaguely recall V and Z drives being in vogue in the 60s; the usual reason was to make more living space at the expense of mechanical complexity. I know little about power boats, but aren't such drives used on them?
 
The Real Flipper said:
Just wondering why they went away from front engines.
Boats like Beason 31:
SailboatData.com - BEASON 31 Sailboat

And Albin Scampi:
Albin Scampi (Albin Marine - Shipman Sweden AB) - Sailboat specifications - Boat-Specs.com

I've seen a few good deals on these but shied away because of front engines.
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They were flavour of the month, particularly in Scandinavia and it was primarily for weight distribution and because those boats had fine after sections which did not like the weight of the heavy (for their hp) diesel engines of the day. If you see how poor engine access is on contemporary IOR influenced designs of the period with their skinny aft sections you can see the attraction of moving the engine forward. As jwilson says mid mounted engines were also popular for a while, particularly with S&S for the same reason.

The boats are what they are and good examples of their type.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I vaguely recall V and Z drives being in vogue in the 60s; the usual reason was to make more living space at the expense of mechanical complexity. I know little about power boats, but aren't such drives used on them?
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V drives are pretty common on work boats of around 1000 hp or so especially where your push rated for towing. It allows you to mount the transmission seperatly to the engine, so the engine can be on more flexible mounts and the gearbox on more rigid giving better more reliable power transmission and alignment. Carden shafts are used between them. The v drive is especially useful for getting the engine further aft, in turn allowing for aft Deck hatches to speed replacement, indeed its a matter of a few hours work to change an engine fitted in this way.

There were/are some strange yachts with v drives in them I assume for space saving but you don't come across that many.

Alternatives to super long shafts is hydraulic drive and I guess diesel electric now as well
 
jwfrary said:
V drives are pretty common on work boats of around 1000 hp or so especially where your push rated for towing. It allows you to mount the transmission seperatly to the engine, so the engine can be on more flexible mounts and the gearbox on more rigid giving better more reliable power transmission and alignment. Carden shafts are used between them. The v drive is especially useful for getting the engine further aft, in turn allowing for aft Deck hatches to speed replacement, indeed its a matter of a few hours work to change an engine fitted in this way.

There were/are some strange yachts with v drives in them I assume for space saving but you don't come across that many.

Alternatives to super long shafts is hydraulic drive and I guess diesel electric now as well
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I guess that's the answer - these days, hydraulic or electric drives are viable alternatives to shaft drives, and that's why you don't see them so much.
 
My Beneteau First Class Europe and my Half tonner both had engines under the saloon table, unimpeded access and as good a place to have the weight as any. Only consideration was remembering to open the exhaust seacock just below the toerail and close it when you shut the engine off. Makes a loud bang otherwise - ask me how I know...
 
Apologies for the late response! I read the answers and thought I responded.
Thanks for all the feedback on the plusses and minuses of engines fore aft and middle.
So much to learn about boats, seems never ending :)
 
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