Repower Advice

[holdfast]

I have a Bristol 35' that needs repowering.The westerbeke 40 seized up (was the replacement for the original atomic 4)and was very near needing to be re-built anyway. Should I re-build or go brand new? The cost of rebuilding seems high and very time consuming. Therefore I am considering a Beta 28hp or Beta 35hp. Does anybody have any advice on Engine selection? (the displacement is 12500 lbs.) I've heard good things about Beta. Any advice would be greatly appriciated.Thank you for your time.

[casual]

Originally Posted by holdfast

I have a Bristol 35' that needs repowering.The westerbeke 40 seized up (was the replacement for the original atomic 4)and was very near needing to be re-built anyway. Should I re-build or go brand new? The cost of rebuilding seems high and very time consuming. Therefore I am considering a Beta 28hp or Beta 35hp. Does anybody have any advice on Engine selection? (the displacement is 12500 lbs.) I've heard good things about Beta. Any advice would be greatly appriciated.Thank you for your time.

28hp Beta will work fine.Had a Universal 25 hp in a C&C 36 12000 lb,plenty of power and lots of reserve left,1/2 gallon per hour @ 6 kts 2300 rpm,s was average on crossings to Bahanas going east against the stream and SE winds.I,beleive Kobota makes the block for beta as were the universal,Wish I,had that engin in my current boat easy to get at things and pretty quiet.

[Cheechako]

Personally, I might go with the 35 hp Beta. You are probably going to want decent HP at a reasonable cruising RPM... say not over 2800 or so. Look at the hP curves published and see what those engines really produce.

[Play Actor]

We repowered our Baba 35 about 18 months ago and documented the whole job from planning and engine selection through sea trials on our blog. The link in the signature will get you there, but the engine replacement saga begins at Voyage of the Play Actor: Play Actor gets a new engine

I hope it's helpful.

[holdfast]

Thank you casual,Cheechako,and Play Actor for your advice and time.I am constantly amazed at the cruising community's ability to help one another.I'll pass that on. The boat is located in stuart,fla..I hope to be cruising the Bahamas for the next couple of years and then the South Pacific.So, while thinking of ampel hp for a Bristol 35 to get in that remote cut before sunset, I am also even more concerned about fuel efficiency.(although I have meet a sailor who sailed from France to Tahiti with no engine on board)Again thank you and I will welcome any more advice.

[gjordan]

holdfast, putting in a physicaly larger engine can lead to maintainance problems if it crowds the engine room. Things(filters, pumps etc) get more difficult to access if it is crowdwd. Also changing to a differant engine will be more expensive than just the engine cost, since engine beds, couplings, maybe the shaft ,may or may not need to be changed. I dont know if the W40 was based on one of the common tractor engines or not , but getting an engine that will fit in the existing engine bed will save dollars. You really dont need more power for long distance cruising, you need reliability,ease of maintainance, and econemy. Spend the extra dollars on a MAX prop or folding prop and it will make for better passages. My 2 cents worth.____Grant.

[charliehows]

I think beta makes a feature of being able to match their engine mounts to other engine beds as a selling point - dont know how well they do it but makes sense from a marketing point of view