Turbo 36 with 165HP

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Apologies if this has been asked before.

Fairline Turbo 36 with smaller 165HP Volvos. Will be used on river mainly with odd coastal jaunt. Any good or avoid? Cheap enough, I suppose because of engines. Probably hard to sell on? Could we expect big bills? :(
 
Well thought of Boat, plenty on the Thames and owners seem happy enough!

Not the most powerful engines as you say, barely adequate for planing speeds, if she will even get over the hump!!

You would be better buying a similar sized Broom which would offer you a bit more day to day space, although the turbo is good in this respect, but far better resale.

Resale will be your problem with those engines.
 
The Turbo 36 is a great boat, I nearly bought one before my current boat but was dissuaded by saloon size and lack of machinery access. Many have neglected gearboxes and stern glands as they are a nightmare to get at to service.

Good looking practical boats though, with bomb proof 80's style über thick lay up and fantastic sea keeping. We do get a few up here (make sure the arch has hinges or it'll go missing first time under Windsor and eton bridge!) and I quite like them.

However, as No Regrets says, 165hp engines are waaaay under powered. I have 2x 306hp in a similar weight vessel, and I wouldn't want any smaller for coastal work. You may find she won't even get on the plane.

If you can live with inland only and difficulty in resale then go for it. I would suggest that the resale problem wouldn't only be low price, you might find no one wants what is really a sea going craft with river powered engines. Buyer beware!

Good luck!
 
Engines

I had a good look at the Turbo 36 myself and everyone echos the advice here. Most suggest 306 are needed for coastal work, although I did come across a number who were very happy with 255s and were based on the Medway. Volvo engines seemed to be expected and BMW's (?) treated at arms length, becasue of supposed reliability issues amnd difficulty with getting parts. There are lots of 36's around and I would argue that you should find one with bigger engines for a good price but you may have to go down to the sea to view! Link to my previous thread if it helps. http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277078
 
Agree 100% with rosssavage. I used to own a Turbo 36 myself (in fact its the one called Otters Way in this month's MBM on the letters page). Mine had 255hp TAMD60C engines and was flat out at 25kts when I owned her in the early 1990's, probably a lot less 20 years later. Even back then, the 165hp engined Turbos struggled to hit 20kts and I agree with rosssavage, some might not even plane now. Yes I suppose if you only do river cruising, the 165hp Turbos are perfectly adequate but when you come to resell, there will be a very limited pool of interested buyers. Much better IMHO to spend more on a TAMD60 engined model or even better on a TAMD61 model which was really the most suitable engine for the Turbo. I can confirm also that if you keep a Turbo on the Thames you definitely need a folding radar arch
 
Disagree a bit.

"Buyer beware!"



The days of going for the monster engines option in a secondhand boat are as dead as that parrot,those of us limited enough (most of us ) in budget to consider a £70K secondhand boat are simply not going to be even thinking about blasting around at 25 knots @ 20 GPH £120 PH ! for hours on end.

The small engines are perfectly adequate for upriver and estuary cruising with the odd coastal run down to Ramsgate etc.
Our club has several T36s of all flavours and as the cruise speed tends to be around 10-12 knots for the "fast" boats and 6-8 for the slow the smaller Fairlines can cruise all day at that speed.

The difficulty of working on mekky stuff on Fairline due to the rear cabin is very valid,however much prefer the more modern interior and layout of the Turbo 36 as opposed to the caravan interior and glasshouse exterior melange of an equivalent priced Broom.
 
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With apologies to all Broom owners. Honest .

No Regrets said:
The Fairline layout and interior is actually pretty similar to a similarly priced broom Fred!?
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Was only guessing and stand to be corrected but you can get a fairly clean and not knocked about T36 (all long offshore passages and well fendered marinas) for between £55-70k and it will be very late 80s or poss. early 90s,where as some well bashed about Thames Broom having had intimate contact with every concrete mooring wall and lock chamber twixt Ted-ton and Bray for that money would be from late 1970 and Austin Powers interior to match.
TURBO36.jpg

broom37.jpg

C,mon which would you rather have..... a timeless classic ...or the result of a bad one night stand involving a glass house and a house brick ? :)
 
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we have a turbo 36 on the Thames (based at Penton Hook) with the 306s and believe that snippets of what everyone has said are true.
ours is a 89 boat and the 306s push us along at 28ish flat out (heavy loading) but we barely get out of tickover when at river speeds.
I think there is a place for the smaller engined turbos, the boats are fantastic in almost everyway (so long as you are a triple jointed midget to service the lumps!) and offer great space.
As has been pointed out with the cost of fuel these days we are limited to how much costal work we can do, i would suggest the turbo is towards the larger end of boats suitable for the Thames so just dont forget that when you come to sell people will be asking the same question as you are now.
 
Thank you all. Interesting responses but not surprising and much as I thought.
Could go for a Broom 10/70 at same price. Decisions, decisions... Love the style of the Turbo and feels younger. Perfect space inside but no rear canopy is a minus in the rain and wind for helming and sitting out. And the rain will pour straight into that sloping cabin door. Engine access worrying for future bills
 
Would suggest that a Turbo with small engines will consume much the same at sea as the 306. At river speeds you won't notice much difference.
I once knew a chap with a new 36 A/C and Volvo 200hp, on a cruise in company to the Channel Isles, the 200hp used more fuel than either 255 or 306hp.
Go for the bigger motors you will save in the long run.
 
At 10-12kts you're going to be pushing a mountain of water with that hull, and using fuel accordingly. I agree that (certainly in my case..) I very, very rarely bash along at 25kts these days - I usually sit at 15 - 18kts where I'm comfortably planing but not devouring the world's supply of diesel every hour.

Having the bigger engines, they can do this without breaking sweat with a fistful of oomph left if the need arises. They are not using any more fuel to do this than a smaller engine (relatively small weight difference aside..) but they're less stressed with power in reserve.

And I can sell my boat when I want to. Cos I've got the biggest engine option.
 
" And I can sell my boat when I want to. Cos I've got the biggest engine option."


H,mm you may have a bit of competition, 13 unsold T36 on Boatmatch at the moment,all of them with the "desirable" bigger engine options, one unsold sporting titchy engines. :)
 
oldgit said:
" And I can sell my boat when I want to. Cos I've got the biggest engine option."


H,mm you may have a bit of competition, 13 unsold T36 on Boatmatch at the moment,all of them with the "desirable" bigger engine options, one unsold sporting titchy engines. :)
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Ross has a Princess........

:D
 
Turbo 36

My Turbo 36 has the 255's and whereas She won't do 27 knots, She will sit all day at 16 - 18 knots, tops out at 23 knots and planes from just above 12.

Bulld like the proverbial brick outhouse, parking without a thruster is interesting, especially as the fly helm is in the middle of the boat, and I keep forgetting to look behind me, but my tender rib provides a good rear mounted sky fender !

My second power boat after numerous yachts. In no rush to move on. Yes the smaller engines will be underpowered, but if you are mostly doing river work they will run better, and use less fuel light loaded, and will still give you a gentle plane for a trip over to Calais, and that's at least three timnes the speed of one of those saily things !

If you get one I've got loads of info including the original owners manual, wiring diagrams etc, plus cross over references for filters etc.

Best of luck !
 
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