things I miss about my old MD1

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
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1/the noise.... I came to love the sound of it starting and the way it ran on tickover - you could still talk in the cockpit when under power

2/the heat it produced in the boat for winter sailing - it would dry out the inside of the boat and if I ran it for the last half hour before stopping for the night the inside of the slug stayed toastie until eight

3/the way it sipped fuel

4/the electrical power it produced for the batteries

5/the working weight of the thing - the beating heart of the boat - it meant that the slug was a real boat

6/most of all I miss the fellowship and kindness of others who owned such nautical antiques

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?366380-md1-wont-start




things I don't miss

1/the perpetual odour of diesel in the boat

2/the dripping stern gland and the wet bilges

3/ the sooty residue on the water after a cold start

4/sourcing spares - aaaagh!

5/Access - real engineers who realise that you and your boat are nothing but trouble compared to the man with the twin cat gin palace with full standing headroom in the engine compartment

6/the fact that should it go wrong then the sailing has to stop until I get it fixed - now I just drop in one of my three back-up outboards and get on with the sailing

7/vulnerability to lobster pots, stray bits of rope and the dreaded diesel bug

 
Dylan,

Since you miss it so much I can arrange delivery of one in full (almost) working order direct to your door!



Gavin
 
gavin400 said:
Dylan,

Since you miss it so much I can arrange delivery of one in full (almost) working order direct to your door!



Gavin
Click to expand...



and that is the nature of the beast

they are often in "almost" full working order

just one broken/unobtainable part away from being in perfect working order

until the next hard to find bit goes west

after it had kicked me four times I decided that it was time to pass it onto some-one who had the skills to nuture the beast

so bless you for your offer

not sure it would add that much to the current boat

and would be one heck of a challenge fitting it

unless it was as some sort of long tail

D
 
dylanwinter said:
just one broken/unobtainable part away from being in perfect working order
Click to expand...

Nothing's truly unobtainable, though. Our Colin works as a machinist for a small company that restores pre-war cars - no spares available for those, so when they need something he mills it up from scratch!

Pete
 
what about rings and gaskets they come a bit expensive if you can find them or even make gaskets in hull (RINGS ?) my mates trying France or next America he says he wished he hadn't started the full rebuild he could have bought a new engine for what he's spent on it with out his labour
 
baltic said:
what about rings and gaskets they come a bit expensive if you can find them or even make gaskets in hull (RINGS ?) my mates trying France or next America he says he wished he hadn't started the full rebuild he could have bought a new engine for what he's spent on it with out his labour
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YBW MD1 owners get together for a group hug

group-hug.jpg



Lonely Tohatsu owner

67308-standing-alone.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dylan,

I had a boat with a Volvo twin ( I forget the designation ) which gave me a fair bit of grief and lots of expense - the zinc alloy boss for the saildrive's folding prop had a crack in it, I passed it around all the fancy welding depts at BAe Kingston but none of them could help, it was such **** zinc metal - so £480 in 1989, £18.00 for a castellated stainless nut, etc etc.

I went back to my previous boat with outboard in well, absolute heaven without a financial sword of damocles hanging over me, and gone are the great worries about saildrive seals and lobster pots.

I miss the Volvo about as much as I miss my appendix when it went bang.
 
I like the sound of these old slow revving engines enough to have started another hobby in restoring them. I've restored three Listers, and now working on a fourth.
One was a lighthouse generator (2 cylinder, 19 HP diesel), and two petrol Lister D's (1 cyl, 1.5 HP). The little ones weight about 150kg, and have a huge flywheel, but at the 600-750 rpm they do, they sound fantastic chuffing away. I had to make several parts, but it is amazing what parts can still be obtained for older engines today, if you know where to ask.

But I doubt I'd put one in a boat quickly. Quite happy with the Volvo MD2030, which is actually a Perkins I think?. It sips diesel (only about 40 litres for the whole of last season - but I do prefer sailing!), quiet enough to hear a conversation or the VHF, not smelly, not smokey, wee bit of diesel in the bilge but minor, and mostly reliable.
I did have to take the injectors out under sail once in sound of Mull, where as a result of inexpertly re-routing the exhaust hose, I had allowed backflow of seawater into the cylinders. (waterlocked) Quick action and an hour's running after seemed to cause no longer lasting effects, then proper routing of the exhaust when possible.
 
The one arrangement I personally detest is a motor in a well..!

An outboard slung out at the back in fresh air is a thing of quietness and cleanliness and manoevrability, all the other 'sensible' arguments aside. I have yet to drown one on the back ( ok there was that seagull with its wet plug...)
Well, well,well ( so many choices )
 
Blueboatman said:
The one arrangement I personally detest is a motor in a well..!

An outboard slung out at the back in fresh air is a thing of quietness and cleanliness and manoevrability, all the other 'sensible' arguments aside. I have yet to drown one on the back ( ok there was that seagull with its wet plug...)
Well, well,well ( so many choices )
Click to expand...

Blueboatman,

an outboard on the transom is ugly, weight in the wrong place, hard and possibly dangerous to work on in situ, requires the complexity and hassle demounting with remote controls or facing backwards to adjust throttle & gears, and renders the engine and its' controls vulnerable to being ripped off by shore lines when rafted to a wall etc, not to mention the primary problem of the prop coming out of the water as the boat pitches.

Some people think an engine in a well might choke on fumes, all I can say is I've never had this including motoring across the Channel, and with a modern 2 stroke running at 100:1 or a 4 stroke there aren't many fumes anyway.

I can lift the engine, stow it and put a fairing plug in the well giving a smooth bottom with no draggy prop to slow us down or catch lobster pots.

Wells also make fantastic cockpit drains, with the fairing plug out I have a 12 X 16" drain !
 
I often wonder if the 1960's manufacturers of small cruisers had had the option of fitting a modern four stroke outboard, as opposed to the awful two stroke outboards available then, whether any of them would ever have even considered fitting a prehistoric diesel engine.

On the re-engine discussion, I think given the option of the same diesel engine which runs ten million tractors, diggers and generators or the renovation a forty year old Swedish museum piece, the choice is obvious; although I might like an old Penta to play with in the shed!
 
CreakyDecks said:
I often wonder if the 1960's manufacturers of small cruisers had had the option of fitting a modern four stroke outboard, as opposed to the awful two stroke outboards available then, whether any of them would ever have even considered fitting a prehistoric diesel engine.
Click to expand...

What if they had had the choice of a modern outboard but also a modern diesel?

Pete
 
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