Petrol / Diesel / Outboard / V Drive for Classic Levi?

joliette

joliette

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Hampshire
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I am considering what to install in my Levi Settimo Velo and thought I would seek some views here to help me make a decision. The vast majority of these boats came off the production line with twin 225hp Mercruisers with outdrives. However, my boat was fitted with twin 220hp BPM Oceanics with V Drives.

Having just acquired the hull for restoration - without any engines or v drives - I am starting from scratch and considering whether to reinstate the v drives or change to outdrives. A v drive system will be considerably more expensive, but would it give any improvement in performance over outdrives?

Petrol engines seem to offer an improved power to weight ratio over diesel, are cheaper to buy and maintain, but more expensive on fuel ... unless anyone here has a different perspective? Will the choice of petrol or diesel make the boat any more / less marketable if / when I come to sell?

My instinct is to go back to the original design concept, to restore her as a classic with Mercruiser or possibly Volvo petrol engines and outdrives.

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.


If you're interested in following this project: http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?...7293999&ref=mf
 
It might be worth posting this on the Mobo Forum - you will probably get a much better response there.

Re your question "A v drive system will be considerably more expensive, but would it give any improvement in performance over outdrives?"

I am sure that everybody on there will unanimously agree that you would get better performance (as in top end speed) with outdrives rather than shaft drives.
 
Cracking boat, I'm very envious. Have joined your facebook group. What's her name?

The cost of a pair of diesels buys an awful lot of petrol and the price gap between petrol and diesel is not as big as it was of course.

If you've got the Levi rudders, P brackets and stern gland/shaft tubes then in engineering terms putting the original set up back in would be very straight forward. A walk in the park in fact.

Switching to stern drives would require some extensive re-engineering of the transom area,a great deal of strength would need to be added to the structure of the boat. Not expensive in materials but if your paying a boat builder it wont be cheap.

I cant see how a shaft set up would cost more than drives, shafts about £300 each, props about a grand, boxes, secondhand about a grand each max with V drives.

I reckon good second hand legs would be £2500 each? Not really sure.

Legs require more ongoing maintence, changing bellows plus anodes. Generally are not as reliable as shafts. A drive is a big lump of aluminium in salt water....if you listen carefully you have hear them fizzing away!

Drives are more efficient, better angle of attack for the prop and less drag, you'd be faster. Drives allow you to dry out on a beach, but in reality when would you do it?

I reckon the boat will handle better with shafts, my Huntsman 28 is glued in the water (I've been digging trenches across the Solent for 7 years with it).

One day earlier in the year, I was running side by side with a Triana 25 on drives, our boat was a much smoother ride, the Triana was being chucked around more, part of the reason is hull form but also all the weight in the stern on the Triana is a factor.

I reckon parking is easier with shafts as the boat tends to sit still for longer.

If she was mine, I'd buy small block Chevy (there must be a chevy to the Levi joke in there) petrols of about 260hp, Borg Warner velvet drive boxes with V Drives, duplex shafts and bronze props. It would make a fine boat. I reckon you could do that with decent secondhand kit for under £10k. Buy all the kit from the USA and ship it in.

Keep us updated.
 
I would agree with Ben re going for shaft drives rather than the outdrives - ok, you might lose a few knots of top end speed, but the reliability factor should be better and the annual maintenance costs lower.
Whenever I see a boat with outdrive legs ashore in the haul out yard here, the leg(s) are invariably in bits......... (no, they didnt fall to bits, they were dis-assembled!).
Boats with shafts usually (not always!) seem to be able to hang on to their shafts when they are hauled out.

I clicked on your link above, but found myself at a page listing the various other Facebook pages I have 'signed up' to - so searched for Settimo Velo, and found your page, and have applied to join, and it is still being considered.......
 
just as a wildcard thought, have you considered a waterjet pack (Hamilton type). Or is restoration to a classic format more significant to you ?
 
She hasn't revealed her name to me yet. It's possible that I'll find it under the paint on the transom when I strip that back. Her history is lost unless someone out there can reveal more?

If I don't find her name I am thinking of calling her "Anon di Anzio", which has a certain ring to it and at least says something about her origin.

I've been scouring the second hand market for engines and drives for about a month. There are very few second hand v drives on the market in the UK, but I have found some twin Mercruiser / Vovlo petrol engine and outdrive packages for around £3K, as a starting point for reconditioning.

There are a lot more v drives on the US second hand market. I've bought things in from the States before. They seemed cheap at the time but were not so cheap after I'd paid the shipping and import duty.

The transom has some bad delamination above the waterline on both quarters. I expect I will need to replace the top half of it at least. It's about 20mm thick and dead flat, so I could increase the thickness of it by laminating with marine ply and tie the whole thing into the sides and into the engine bearers to give an outdrive installation what it would need. If I go that way, I'll be left with very many holes in the hull to bung up from the v drive installation!

Whatever way I decide to go there seem to be pros and cons. I do want to preserve her as a classic. Didn't the first Volvo outdrives appear in the late 50's? That said, I would certainly be open to fuel injection and duo props to improve fuel economy. I guess it's going to be down to whatever matching twin systems comes along at the right price ...
 
What would the switch to drives do to the cockpit layout?

I'm not sure it would be cheaper in the long run to put drives in.

As you say, not so many V drives about.

Would be nice to find her name.
 
Have you got a copy of Sonny Levi's classic book 'From Dhows to Deltas'?
If not, has anybody else got one?
Its a long shot, but there might possibly be some info about your boat in there.
I have only ever had a browse through it once (21 years ago), and thought it was excellent - one day I shall get one on Amazon if they are not too extortionate.

I suppose that I have a latent prejudice against outdrive legs, hence I would be much more in favour of re-installing vee shaft drives.
Looking forward to seeing the progress photos on your Facebook page! :)
 
The engine compartment is cavernous, so a switch to outdrives would not change the cockpit layout. I have Dhows to Deltas and the Patrol Boat version of the Settimo Velo is featured on page 151, with outdrives illustrated as per the attached picture.

A couple of v drive units have just been advertised locally, so I will investigate those before making a decision. I will have to take some measurements off the boat to calculate the v drive angle required and try to figure out if the ones advertised are correct or can be adjusted.
 
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I made an interesting discovery today: The spray rails on my boat do not extend all the way back to the transom apart from the one on the waterline. The other three terminate about 1m apart, so the bottom one ends about 3m forward. On the outdrive hulls that I've seen pictures of, the top 3 spray rails extend all the way back to the transom. I assume there is a good reason for this? Is it to help reduce roll in tight corners?

Anyway, I guess if I was going to change from v drives to outdrives I would need to extend the existing bars back to the transom or risk possible handling problems?

I've also looked again at my cavernous engine bay to find that I'd have major access issues if I was fitting Volvo V6s or Mercruiser V8s into outdrives. I think this explains why all of the outdrive boats that seem to around now have rather small engines! The whole of the engine bay frame could be modified but it's starting to look like a whole load of extra work to switch to outdrives.
 
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