chuck21401

Do such boats exist? I've seen that Mercruiser has a new line of diesel motors w/stern drives. Have these motors made it into sport boats?

I've seen diesel powered mega sport/cruiser boats (magnum for example), but not 24-40ft sport boats.

WARPAINT

Bob Saccenti and Eric Froberg shoved a couple of Yanmar diesels in a 28 Apache.The boat was used as a tender for a larger yacht

Great idea from a reliability standpoint.

Chris L

There is a Chris Cat on Lake Erie in NY/ PA with a pair of 420 Yanmar's in it.With surface drives.I seen it in Port Dover last year. not bad looking but sounds strange.

damdonzi

Warpaint would you have any details on that 28 Apache with Yanmars like drives and what performance they saw afterward? Pics?

Raylar

In Europe they have been running Lamborginni and Seatek diesels in the UIM sanctioned offshore racing for years. These boats are well over 120 mph now! The guys in the mediteranean love the big water and their diesel toys!
Raylar

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Sonic has done some recent work with diesels.

DirtyMoney

seateks blow away the yanmars but I cannot find any local support.

DirtyMoney

Where is "super termoli"

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Seatek is who Sonic has been working with. They got a 45 with twin 800s into the 90s with French surface drives. If all else fails, contact Richard Hewitt, President of Sonic, and see if he can point you toward someone. I met the Seatek tech rep from Europe who came over to rig and tune First Derivitive, the 45 Sonic, and he is a super nice guy. He may be in the states semi-permanent now.

super termoli

super termoli is back! i've been silent but kept my ears open. Yes, "first derivative" was a 45' sonic with twin 820hp Seateks and SDS drives (designed by France Helices). It was hoped that the boat would go over 100mph but I don't know if that materialized. Anyway, it turned out to be more difficult than anticipated and I was informed that they went through a fair number of props trying to make that thing go. However and in all fairness, the problem was more with the drives than anything else. Out of all surface drives, SDS is probably the one I would recommend the least. The advantage? Low cost. Also, that Sonic was not designed to take that much weight in the back (there was approx. 5000 pounds worth of motors, gearboxes and drives in the back). But, I heard the boat went pretty well when it was all sorted out. I heard 98 mph. That Seatek rep was Stefano Riva, a super-nice guy who really tried to promote the name in the US. Unfortunately, he is not with Seatek anymore. It was a very frustrating task for him as he was juggling with very limited resources while trying to do his job. Nonetheless, Seateks are great engines and have won many UIM titles. They are not as reliable as a Detroit-MTU or a Cat for instance but way more reliable that a gas V8. If maintained correctly, they are good for between 1000 and 2000 hours without major interventions. This is my experience and some people will tell a different story because what I'm saying is true only if you are very pedantic with your service and if you know the engine and its small problem areas. If that is not the case, Seateks will punish you. As there has never been a strong support network in the US, having very regular service by people who are specialists is nearly impossible and that's how Seateks got a bit of bad rep. And it is a shame because it fundamentally is a great engine. Some have complained that they smoke too much on acceleration but even this can be fixed by small modifications of the turbo-charging system.
Compared to that, a Yanmar is much easier to live with. If you're sloppy about your service and oil changes, it will not hold it against you. 5-year warranty, good for 5000 hours before major work takes place. This engine won a number of endurance championships and Buzzi is actually using more Yanmars than Seateks right now.
As for performance boats, there is the new Hustler 50 Esprit de Soleil. It has Trimax surface drives and 4 Yanmars for approx. 80 mph. It will cruise all day at 70 and will have a range of over 500NM at 55 mph. It is also available with trip Seateks which is good for 100 mph. Remember, this boat is 23 000 pounds dry. Other than that, the owner of Hustler, Joe, has a 388 Slingshot with twin 440 Yanmars and Arnesons and he is running over 80 mph. Very close to performance you would get with twin 500s. Hustler can also do a 388 with twin 315 Yanmars and XRs which will get you over 60 mph. The problem is the fact that Bravos won't take much more than 315 Yanmars for very long. Fountain also had a 42 with twin Yanmars and Arnesons and it reportedly ran over 80 mph and they have their 48 Express with triples which will do over 60 mph. Remember, this boat is 12' wide! Nortech also had a 50' with triples which was close to 70 mph. Plus, cat manufacturers like MTI and Spectre are experimenting with Yanmars. All in all, as the tendency for boats is to get bigger and bigger, you need more and more torque to move them in anything other than flat water. And when you need torque, you need diesels. If you're interested in a diesel performance boat, I would talk to someone like Joe or Chip from Hustler because they are great believers in diesel power. And they just bought Keith Eickert so they really have no interest in giving thimbs up to diesels. They do so simply because if you're not out to break speed records, if cruising at 70 mph is what you're after, if you want to log 500 trouble-free hours per season on your boat and if tinkering and adjusting carburetors and blowers is not your thing, then they're the way to go... They will never roar like a V8 but horses for courses as they say...