S.France Marine petrol engine & sterndrive builders

[jbk]

Hi all, I'm considering 'taking on' an early 90's boat with Volvo Penta AQ271 570 v8 and an DP-A sterndrive. The boat will be based down in France, Nice area, and I'd like to find someone down this way that has the experience and interest on working on rebuild level type work on this old machinery. Does anybody know of anyone that can do this sort of work down here, or maybe even anywhere in Europe or UK and the block and drive I suppose could be shipped to them and back? TIA

 

[simonfraser]

Labour on this will make the project a serious money pit, that’s if you can find anyone crazy enough to take it on.

Unless you can do it yourself and enjoy a ‘few’ months being a grease monkey, run away.

 

[jbk]

Thanks for the advice Simon. Though I'd love to take 6 months off work to do this myself I neither have the time nor the space to do so.

My left brain agrees with you, and says buy the most immaculate one on the market which has already had this work done, but then again I bet there'll still be issues hiding in such a boat (unlikely anyone would sell something that's immaculate fresh from having suck level of money spent).

I'm guessing hourly rates down here'll probably be north of €150ph.

Seems you can only avoid all of this on a ~26ft sports boat you if you spend north of £100k for something new enough perhaps with warranty. Even then, you're still looking at:
- drive refresh - €3.5k every 3years
- manifold & risers every 3 years - €4k
- annual lift | service | antifoul | other bits (€2k p.a.)

So, an old boat, ok hull, but re-power or rebuild rqd, motor & drive:
- rebuilt - perhaps €18k + the hassle.
- repower - perhaps €30k now motor & drive + the hassle.

So these old 90's sports boats asking €30k are just liability pits, and seem not worth such money at all. In fact maybe they ought to just be worth single figure 000's, if that, as current owner ought to be glad of freedom from the 'money pit liability vs leave it to rot and worth nothing' equation.

Ha ha, excuse the ramble, just trying to get this all straight in my head before I make a bit multi year mistake!!

Am I about right with the above you think?

(would still like to find mechanics down here as per original post in case someone knows anyone!)

 

[Portofino]

Try Arie d Boom @ La Rague .
Old school engine + machine shed with old school guys .

alternatively “ marine motors “ @ la Napoule nearby .

 

[jointventureII]

I did something like this but had a few personal rules:
-If sterndrive then has to be diesel
-engine not older than 20 years
-if on shafts, can be petrol

I spent €10k on a Bertram 25 that was abandoned, a borderline gamble. 2006 Mercruiser diesel in it, which showed no issues on sea trial but clearly had a lot of work required. And once I did, another €10k on parts.

I've now got a 25ft classic, mechanically sound (touch wood..) but aesthetically horrendous boat! I'll get to the aesthetics eventually, but I can take the wife and kids out in relative peace of mind.

Honestly unless you do it all properly from the start, and change absolutely everything that needs to be changed, you'll end up disappointed and extremely frustrated. It'll cost a fortune. Rather, go for something that needs the outboard(s) updating and find a pair of 10 year old outboard(s) which will still be reliable but at a cost that can be stomached

 

[jbk]

Try Arie d Boom @ La Rague .
Old school engine + machine shed with old school guys .

alternatively “ marine motors “ @ la Napoule nearby .

Excellent, thanks @Portofino, those look like the kind of folks, I drive up there later this week and recce. Much apporeciated .

 

[jbk]

I did something like this but had a few personal rules:
-If sterndrive then has to be diesel
-engine not older than 20 years
-if on shafts, can be petrol

I spent €10k on a Bertram 25 that was abandoned, a borderline gamble. 2006 Mercruiser diesel in it, which showed no issues on sea trial but clearly had a lot of work required. And once I did, another €10k on parts.

I've now got a 25ft classic, mechanically sound (touch wood..) but aesthetically horrendous boat! I'll get to the aesthetics eventually, but I can take the wife and kids out in relative peace of mind.

Honestly unless you do it all properly from the start, and change absolutely everything that needs to be changed, you'll end up disappointed and extremely frustrated. It'll cost a fortune. Rather, go for something that needs the outboard(s) updating and find a pair of 10 year old outboard(s) which will still be reliable but at a cost that can be stomached

Good to hear your story @jointventureII and well done for getting this far , at least you're safely out on the water now. I know it'd be a good deal easier, but unfortunately I don't want outboards, the family and I want that nice rear swim platform to be able to enjoy and swim at all the nice spots around here.

Out of interest, and excuse my ignorance, but why was your rule no sterndrive with a petrol engine?

 

[jointventureII]

Sterndrives are notoriously maintenance heavy and suffer from growth. The cost of running a petrol engined sterndrive boat would have been too high for me. I was able to deal with the "hassle" of a sterndrive if it meant using diesel. I can run along at 6 knots burning 3 litres per hour.

I have actually found this sterndrive, an old Mercruiser Bravo 2, to be OK so far (4 years in) though I have changed the transom mount which was a pig of a job, and semi-solved the growth issue by leaving the boat with a bag over the sterndrive.

 

[mnts]

I had last year a gasoline V8 failed and was looking to rebuild. block was tested and ok, new heads and all were done (don't know all the terms ).
but then in US you could get a rebuilt engine shipped. I ended up in a similar price range. I asked for a quote to ship it to north Europe and it was about 900 USD. still would be VAT on top. did not check if any import duties.

Volvo Penta Replacement Engines - Marine Engines - Products

 

[jbk]

I had last year a gasoline V8 failed and was looking to rebuild. block was tested and ok, new heads and all were done (don't know all the terms ).
but then in US you could get a rebuilt engine shipped. I ended up in a similar price range. I asked for a quote to ship it to north Europe and it was about 900 USD. still would be VAT on top. did not check if any import duties.

Volvo Penta Replacement Engines - Marine Engines - Products

gets expensive quick! hope you got yours all sorted now.