Yanmar, Bukh or ANOther?

If 20 ponies was right in the first place, mightn't she be over-engined at 38?

Wasn't right though, seriously under powered , it's over a 10t boat. Originally offered with a 20 or 35. Too depressing to miss all the chicken at the barby in the next bay cos you can't motor round a headland into a bit of wind and swell like everyone else but have to spend couple of hours motorsailing instead.
 
Wasn't right though, seriously under powered , it's over a 10t boat. Originally offered with a 20 or 35. Too depressing to miss all the chicken at the barby in the next bay cos you can't motor round a headland into a bit of wind and swell like everyone else but have to spend couple of hours motorsailing instead.

Roger that. 4hp per ton is a good formula.
 
Thanks for the link, I'm looking at similar, 20hp bukh to a 38 beta. Happy with the beta?

Hi, We've done about 60 hours with her to date, but in a word, delighted. It's a different boat, and I can now control the boat, ahead and astern. Uses about 1l per hour, smooth, quiet and powerful. You have to factor in our old Bukh was a single cylinder 30 years old, but it's still a delight.

I can't say it's any better than the Nanni or Yanmar, clearly, but we would recommend Beta.

They even told us that we could probably go for the 16HP, and save a few hundred, but the top end of the Bristol Channel, and huge tides, made us think of a few extra HP, rightly or wrongly.
 
Regarding being 'overpowered', I have a theory. Top speed may not be any better, but acceleration and responsiveness is, and when you need to move quickly from a standing start, in a tight marina with a strong wind, say, having a bit extra power helps.

That's my theory anyway.

With our old 10HP Bukh, I could never manoevre astern. The reason was that by the time the engine had built us up to steerage speed, the wind had whipped us around. With the 20HP, we don't get that at all. I failed to moor stern to on our club pontoon in 2 years with the old engine. I did it first time with the new, the day we launched.
 
Agree with all John says. There is very little to choose among the popular modern engines - even price, as it is a very competitive market. Arguably a Volvo or Yanmar is better if you are travelling abroad as they have the most extensive dealer networks and are the brands that are fitted to almost all new boats.
I have found that Kubota, the base engine for Nanni and Beta is widely available everywhere, certainly in Greece all tractors are Kubota based engines and spares widely available.

Not a pop, just an observation!
 
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