Sunseeker Portofino 31 - One Away

Old Sunseekers

I brought an old Sunseeker Travado 40 at the end of the summer. She was in a pretty sorry state cosmetically but on the button engine wise. 2 of the old Detroit 2 stroke diesels, 400HP each, runs 30 knots with a clean bottom.
Old boats like this seem to be really well built and offer incredible value. Yes you take a risk on the mechanicals but my engines have only 600 hours and lots of history.
They are fast becoming timeless classics I think. Soon they will be revered almost as much as old Faireys and the like :D
 
Mint, that looks cracking.
I looked at the travados, but beeing a speed freak when for the rapallo, although the travado is a lot beamier and loads more room.
More photos please...
We may need a classic plastic section :)
 
Good evening all. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed our used Sunseeker review. I've driven a lot of boats this year, and that 31 Portofino really stands out for me because it has such an exceptional cost to value ratio. It's a staggering amount of boat for the money! Plus, as I said in the report (and I think the video), even at over twenty years old you don't need to make allowances for it, it goes and handles brilliantly, even by today's standards.

Of course it helps that I'm a child of the eighties, so anything from the "Miami Vice era" looks good to me, but I can certainly remember lusting after these when they first came out.

As has been said by a few people in this thread, there's some really great Sunseeker models from this era. I'm not sure why, but a Portofino 25 also hits the spot for me. A nice one of these, re-engined with a single KAD 44 would be quite a boat.
 
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Robg71 said:
More photos please...
We may need a classic plastic section :)
Click to expand...

You asked.....here is mine, just had here a year...:

P1080557_zpsc016f1ee.jpg
 
Travado

Travado's are massive. Beam is about 14ft, props are in tunnels so the draft is only 2ft 8in, ideal for Christchurch where she lives.
Always been an old Sunseeker person, but probably biased as my Uncle happens to be Don Shead.
The main thing about these boats to me is that they were very well built, engineering is good, wiring all neatly clipped, pipework neat and tidy.
Will try to take some internal pictures over the weekend.
 
Two cracking looking boats...
I really was six and too threes for travado or rapello... In the end thirty plus knots won...
where did you get this one from. There were a couple of low hour travados when i bought mine.
 
Robg71 said:
Two cracking looking boats...
I really was six and too threes for travado or rapello... In the end thirty plus knots won...
where did you get this one from. There were a couple of low hour travados when i bought mine.
Click to expand...

She was on the Blackwater in Essex, looking in a rather sorry state as the Owner had fallen out of love with her. Incredible value for money !
She will run 30 knots with a clean bottom but I hate to think of the consumption. We tend to cruise at about 23-24 knots at 2300 RPM, (2800 full revs). The Detroits are a bit noisy but I love the sound.
I get my speed thrills from Powerboat racing still.
 
Scaled Up

When you look at the Travado side on and the 31 Portofino it looks as though they just zoomed it up in the copier to 150%.
Could have an interesting debate on the best 90's colour choice. I do like the grey and yellow but also the dark blue/ turquoise is pretty nice?
 
Pennpromo said:
...... We tend to cruise at about 23-24 knots at 2300 RPM, (2800 full revs). The Detroits are a bit noisy but I love the sound.....
Click to expand...

Oucha !!! 2800 is very high for those iron lumps !!! What model are they??? ... 71 series Greys were running with pumps screwed up to 2600 and GM marinised ones at 2300 at WOT ... (mechanical or electric gauges ??) Love the sound, and beautiful boat by the way !!
 
Engines

Divemaster1 said:
Oucha !!! 2800 is very high for those iron lumps !!! What model are they??? ... 71 series Greys were running with pumps screwed up to 2600 and GM marinised ones at 2300 at WOT ... (mechanical or electric gauges ??) Love the sound, and beautiful boat by the way !!
Click to expand...

The engines are Detroit 6V53. So they are V6, 53 Cu inch per pot: 5.2 litres approx. 400HP at 2800 RPM. Two stroke supercharged aftercooled and turbocharged. Popular in Sunseekers late 90s as they offered terrific power to weight ratio. Many Camargue 46s had the V8 550HP versions.
Years ago I ran several Greyhound buses around Europe for marketing roadshows, they had the 8V71 series engine, 10.6 litre versions, but essentially the same architecture, scaled up. They ran 2 million miles with no problems as long as the W40 monograde oil was regularly changed.
The very strange thing is that you can undo a cover on the side of the block to look into the inlet chamber and see the pistonrings through the inlet ports ...
 
Pennpromo said:
The engines are Detroit 6V53. So they are V6, 53 Cu inch per pot: 5.2 litres approx. 400HP at 2800 RPM. Two stroke supercharged aftercooled and turbocharged. Popular in Sunseekers late 90s as they offered terrific power to weight ratio. Many Camargue 46s had the V8 550HP versions....
Click to expand...

Thanks ... mine are in line 6's ... 6/71 TIA's ... keep those Jimmy's sweet and they'll run for a loooong time ... just make sure you don't overload them ... they are a bit sensitive for that stuff ... at 400 HP out of the 6V53's, you'll be at the top end of what was taken out of them .... but suspect you already know that :D
 
I do wish people wouldn't decide that something I used to own is now a classic. :D

Anyway, a couple of pix from when I did own a Portofino 31:

P9220014.jpg


P4140012.jpg
 
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