Retirement and New Boat

[Bigplumbs]

I found out last week that my retirement might happen a bit sooner than I had planned.

I will therefor have less cash than I had hoped. The boat I was planning to upgrade to is still something like a 24 foot sports cruiser with a single engine. I currently have a 19 foot Fletcher GTS and a bow rider 17 for fun.

The boat will be on a swinging mooring and need more space inside and a proper toilet.

Because funds will be short My question is around engines. Most of the boats that I can afford on my budget of around £20k have mercruiser petrol engines. If I can find a diesel boat with perhaps a cad32 would this save me much in running costs and how might performance compare

In Skiathos on holiday at the mo so looking forward to your replays

Thanks

Dennis

 

[Momac]

I have only owned diesels including a Sealine s23 with a kad32 .
But I would say the petrol boat would be faster . If you dont do a huge number of hours the petrol boat could be the best option.

Diesel engines are longer lived. I know of one similar petrol engined bat and the engine cooling passages rotted though. On the other hand a new petrol engine is much more affordable than a diesel.

For me the absence of petrol refuelling opportunities in my wider cruising area is a deciding factor.

 

[dpb]

My own views are based on a recent switch from a 25 year old twin diesel 31 fter to a 15 year old single petrol 25ft sports cruiser, which was at about your budget.
I also had useful discussions on this with my mechanic.
The gist of it was that in the first 10 to 15 years both engine types should be reasonably reliable and not need too much above regular servicing so it is down to the premium paid for the diesel against the cheaper fuel costs and perceived if not actual greater safety of the fuel type.
After this things will start to go wrong and there seems to me to be a lot more to go wrong on the diesel than there is on the petrol and the parts pricing of mercruiser petrol parts seem a bargain compared to the parts pricing of the Volvo penta diesel parts, and if you get a major internal failure the difference to rectify can be huge.
But you have to buy wisely whichever route you go, we saw several badly looked after examples that resembled lumps of rust but there are good ones to. Just get them checked and if petrols budget for replacing the exhaust manifolds and elbows every 5 years or so and / or consider converting to fresh water cooling.
The premium for the diesel version of the boat we bought seemed to be about £5000 on a £20000 petrol boat and I have read that some are disappointed with the diesel performance citing that it is hard to get on the plane with more than a light load.
So these views are based on my own experiences, there may well be some that say they bought their 15 year old diesels and ran them without any repairs being needed for another 10 years, maybe I was unlucky!

 

[Bigplumbs]

Interesting replies keep the views comming

Dennis

 

[BruceK]

At the moment you are on petrol and if that is no heartache for you now then on a 24 footer I'd go petrol every time. I would also be looking at outboard rather than inboard for that size and class

 

[dpb]

At the moment you are on petrol and if that is no heartache for you now then on a 24 footer I'd go petrol every time. I would also be looking at outboard rather than inboard for that size and class

Agreed....but at that budget / size / sportscruiser style we were unable to identify a single contender that had all the facilities of the sportscruiser but powered by outboard.

 

[wipe_out]

I would also suggest a petrol boat with your budget.. Petrol will likely have a better "feel" of performance and if anything goes drastically wrong an entire inboard petrol engine can be replaced relatively cheaply compared to a diesel engine.. If on an outdrive make sure it's been regularly serviced and you will be fine..

 

[Montemar]

We had a Sealine S23 with KAD32 engine. It was all in good condition when we bought it. It had enough internal space for us to overnight and a nice seating area outside though be prepared to be putting and taking down the canopy.
It would do 26/27 knots with a clean hull and cruise at 20 easily. It bounced about somewhat in a moderate sea because it was quite light though many would find that fun!
There are a lot of them around and we sold ours with about 330 hours on the engine and in good condition for £28k about 18 months ago. It was a 2003 model.
For the same money you get a little bigger with a petrol engine and something American but we thought the S23 had a bit more class mainly because it was a Sealine and made in GB.

 

[BruceK]

Agreed....but at that budget / size / sportscruiser style we were unable to identify a single contender that had all the facilities of the sportscruiser but powered by outboard.

True enough with traditional style sports cruisers but new BA's, MF's, Quicksilver, Finnmaster are imo potential contenders in that size class and can be had with OB's

 

[Bigplumbs]

Thanks for all the good advice. Looks like petrol it will be when the time comes. I am told that some of the more modern larger petrol scan be almost as economic as my older design 3 Ltr

Also as stated is the worst happens a new block from re power marine is not too expensive.

Now all I need to do is keep up the search so aia know what is good value when the time comes

Dennis

 

[DavidJ]

Just adding to the recommendations for Sealine S23 I had one for 8 years and they are just about towable as well. Also Look at Sealine S24, S240 and S25 the latter I believe was mostly diesel but will be more like £30k

 

[Bigplumbs]

David

Thanks for the advice, yes towable once a year to and from is also important to me as I don't want to pay Marina charges out of season

Dennis

 

[jamie langstone]

If you want a Searay 240 with a Nanni deisel and with a bow thruster,ray marine radar and gps then pm me as I am just going to sell mine

 

[Bigplumbs]

Thanks for the offer Jamie but I am not yet in a position to buy. Also I think I will now go with a petrol engine

Dennis

 

[Seastoke]

There is a post asking about selling a sera with a diesel last week

 

[Jim@sea]

So these views are based on my own experiences, there may well be some that say they bought their 15 year old diesels and ran them without any repairs being needed for another 10 years, maybe I was unlucky!

I bought a 23ft boat with a 15 year old diesel (Yanmar 135) although it was an excellent engine I had my reservations about its service history and will never again buy a boat where the owner says "I serviced it myself" However a service sheet showed that a well known boatyard had done a service 60 hours previously and stated that the Impeller was "serviceable" This particular impeller was a nightmare to get at, you could only just touch it never mind apply pressure to remove it. I ended up getting a Marine Mechanic to strip the engine to remove the pump, And the impeller was seriously falling apart. I assume that the boatyard may have been on a fixed service price and the mechanic by pronouncing the impeller as "serviceable" was able to cut 2 hours off his time. After all what boatyard is going to miss the opportunity to sell a £45 impeller. A previous boat which I bought when it was 20, had an Iveco diesel which was excellent and had full service history. To me a boat which has been serviced properly will be my next purchase.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Been looking around and felt that the Sealine S24 was the boat for us. All I find though have Cad 32 in them and after the advice here I wanted to go Mercruiser . Think I might have to go for a Bayliner

Dennis

 

[aquapower]

Been looking around and felt that the Sealine S24 was the boat for us. All I find though have Cad 32 in them and after the advice here I wanted to go Mercruiser . Think I might have to go for a Bayliner

Dennis

I would have KAD32 above anything mercruiser make, you will find it much more reliable and cheap to maintain.

 

[boatingdave]

I bought a 23ft boat with a 15 year old diesel (Yanmar 135) although it was an excellent engine I had my reservations about its service history and will never again buy a boat where the owner says "I serviced it myself" However a service sheet showed that a well known boatyard had done a service 60 hours previously and stated that the Impeller was "serviceable" This particular impeller was a nightmare to get at, you could only just touch it never mind apply pressure to remove it. I ended up getting a Marine Mechanic to strip the engine to remove the pump, And the impeller was seriously falling apart. I assume that the boatyard may have been on a fixed service price and the mechanic by pronouncing the impeller as "serviceable" was able to cut 2 hours off his time. After all what boatyard is going to miss the opportunity to sell a £45 impeller. A previous boat which I bought when it was 20, had an Iveco diesel which was excellent and had full service history. To me a boat which has been serviced properly will be my next purchase.

I have the opposite experience. I now service my own engines - I'm an ex Engineer and am meticulous on what and how its done and I keep full records and buy genuine parts. I've tried several 'Marine Engineers' from well known boat yards but have had problems with shoddy work from the majority of them (only one guy on the Thames that I trust from days gone by), at least one of them potentially serious i.e. boat sinkingly serious. Even when I had a simple job on the engines recently I tried a local firm (I was running out of time) and they broke more than they fixed and got several big oily 'bum' marks on the creme carpet which all had to be replaced. Another instance when I had the radar arch re-wired they (a different firm) just changed the cables I could see and used DC crimps used on the coax feeds so neither the TV or VHF worked very well was what drew my attention the fact they they hadn't done what they were contracted to do. Maybe because of my background I notice what is wrong and what others wouldn't be any the wiser on or maybe you've actually been fortunate to find an honest one. I would really like to find someone I can trust, I'd rather be boating than servicing (or repairing) the engines or working on the boat.... I'm sure the space to move around the engines is getting smaller as I get older Of course if you do your own work on the boat and you have the experience to do it properly and something goes wrong when you're out you have a better chance of fixing any issues if you know the boat well. Two sides to evey coin and of course there are folk who attempt to do it themselves that shouldn't but thought I'd comment on the generalisation.