Possible to overhaul engines with boat in water

[SDChristian]

As I get close to buying my first cat I've been contemplating the eventuality of engine rebuilding, which I think I can do myself. I'm wondering if it would be possible to pull cat engines out, separating them from the sail-drive, and rebuild them one at a time with the boat in the water. If possible, it would seem that it would be pretty convenient since you could motor around with the other engine. Doable?

[rabbi]

if you have enough room to separate the engines from the sail drive this works. we had it done on our Lagoon 410 while in the water at the slip.

motoring on one engine is no problem but no fun for docking.

[carpe vita]

Very possible if the engines are possible for boats like FP with the engines aft. I recently sold an FP Lavezzi 40 to a client. One engine was already changed due to an accident. They decided to change the other one for reliability since there were no records of engine hours.
The change the engine on a mooring next to me. They put the engine in their dingy and hoisted it with the boom and dropped in it into the engine room and bolted to the sail drive. They did an excellent job.