Sail Drives, The Good, The Bad and Ugly

[MARINE ENGINNER]

the only problem i heard about volvo saildrive yacht built 2011 a 150S that lost,while on sailing on engine, propeller lock nut and the between washers.it fell off like was not tight
i assume it might have some vibrations plus not proper tightening of the lock nut
this happened last year close to samos island

[MARINE ENGINNER]

Our company specializies on maintenance yacht management and yacht charter on Samos Island. Samos Yachts is a company situated among the best in the East Aegean sea teritory in Greece, and West coast of Turkey. We offer sail yacht charters bareboat and skippered from 1995 from Samos and Kos Island as long as maintenance.

[KrautHolg]

Have had Volvo-Penta saildrives on two different multihulls for about 9 years. I am now looking for a boat with shaft drives, as there were too many (expensive to fix) problems and also it required the boats to get out of the water too often, which is a problem (and yet another expense) in remote places.

[MikeFergie]

I was taught to put my sail drives in reverse gear when engines are off and sailing.
Not sure "exactly" why but I am assuming it's to stop the props from rotating whilst sailing and therefore the whole gearbox internals creating more wear and tear

Rgards
MikeF
Yanmar SD20 's on a L40 cat


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Mara Mae]

Hi All,

To contribute to the data set, I have a circa 1980 Volvo Md17c and 110 SD that is the original install on a Corbin 39. It has spent most of its life in freshwater but is was in salt a couple of years ago and is now in salt again in Cape Breton. I have zero problems. Engine hours are 1000ish. Visible rust on tensioning rim in engine room. It is on my list to replace membrane
https://www.volvopentashop.com/epc/e...%2F7742220_050

and

https://www.volvopentashop.com/epc/e...%2F7742220_050

BUT I am not sure how high on the list I should place it since I have zero problems. There is a video on youtube of a guy that change his and the rubber bellows was in perfect shape. My question/thought is does a saildrive bellows give a bit of a warning as it starts to deteriote and pass water? If that is the case I may just wait until I have water in the engine room regularly. Open to opinions. Thanks

[Downeaster]

I can speak from current experience and its definitely the ugly. My Volvo Penta 150S saildrive has only 1600 hours and has clutch issues. Very dangerous failure mode... It would unpredictably not shift into gear, as in reverse when approaching the dock, for example.

To replace or rebuild the clutch mechanism requires removing the upper unit. This means at least sliding the engine forward or, in many cases, requires removing the entire engine to get it out of the engine compartment. This is a big and expensive job.

But the worst part is the difficulty to trouble shoot or address issues inside the unit. It's a complex clutch mechanism that can be tricky and/or expensive to repair. And if you don't want to take your chances (see paragraph 2), then a replacement unit is almost the same cost as the engine itself. As of today, a Volvo 150S is about $12,000 USD in the the US. Note, for Volvo at least, if your yard isn't a certified Volvo Penta dealer then Volvo won't honor the warranty.

Bottom line for me is a $20K hit... I would definitely not recommend the Volvo's at least.

[ggray]

Just read your post, and your experience is of interest to me.

You might read this other thread on this subject:

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ve-166035.html

Originally Posted by Mara Mae

Hi All,

To contribute to the data set, I have a circa 1980 Volvo Md17c and 110 SD that is the original install on a Corbin 39. It has spent most of its life in freshwater but is was in salt a couple of years ago and is now in salt again in Cape Breton. I have zero problems. Engine hours are 1000ish. Visible rust on tensioning rim in engine room. It is on my list to replace membrane
https://www.volvopentashop.com/epc/e...%2F7742220_050

and

https://www.volvopentashop.com/epc/e...%2F7742220_050

BUT I am not sure how high on the list I should place it since I have zero problems. There is a video on youtube of a guy that change his and the rubber bellows was in perfect shape. My question/thought is does a saildrive bellows give a bit of a warning as it starts to deteriote and pass water? If that is the case I may just wait until I have water in the engine room regularly. Open to opinions. Thanks