MGB81 in Berthon for a refit.

These engines look VERY familiar to me,
the props are smaller diameter than mine,

interesting how they "side shift" the engine while lifting out

do you have any specs of the boat, or engines ?

thanks for posting very interesting
 
I met one of the old engineers who used to service those MTB'up at Port Hampton during the war.He told me that rather than service insitue
they would have three fully serviced engine on standby and change all three in one day !
 
itchenseadog said:
Ironic she should have German engines !
Click to expand...

Those are not the originals.
Most likely Thornycroft petrols triples used in the 60 ftr s or these were used in the 102 series
3 1,150hp Isotta Fraschini IF 183 57-litre petrol W18 engines: 3,450 hp
Speed: was 47 knots back then .
Most were re engined after the war .
Interestedly our boats had a shollow deadrise ( Ok sharp entry ) ,while the German E boats had a deep V s at the transom.
This mean,t they used to slam badly and be real pigs as a stable gun / torpedo platform .
The Germans on the other hand went out in bigger seas were faster ( did not have to slow as much ) and provided a more stable - thus accurate gun / torpedo platform .Being Diesels had longer range and safer @ taking small arms fire over our petrols .

Ok our Spitfires were superior to there Messerschmitt BF 109, s
But there E boats ( Built by Lürssen btw ) were the winners hands down in the gun / torpedo boat comparison.
There Tiger tanks too hugely superior to our “ Tommy cookers “

Of course it’s great a few are left and we should be grateful for PVT owners doing there best looking after them .
 
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itchenseadog said:
Ironic she should have German engines !
Click to expand...

Rather in the same way that most Spitfires flying these days have German propellors, and most of the 109's are actually Spanish HA-1112's (licence built by Hispano Suiza after the war) and use Roll Royce Merlin motors. I don't know what motors the MGB would have run in period, but either Napiers or Packards would seem likely. I'm told that some boats used marinised Meteor engines, which were more or less merlin engines, without the supercharger, assembled from bits that either didn't quite make the grade for aero engines, or came out of motors that had been in aircraft that had had accidents. The only unique bits were the camshafts that had to be reengineered to run in the opposite direction, for non-aero use.
 
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