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Old 12-21-2014, 11:42 AM   #69
Ski in NC
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City: Wilmington, NC
Vessel Name: Louisa
Vessel Model: Custom Built 38
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 6,194
Probably been posted elsewhere, but another consideration is with twins there is simply more equipment to fail. Many failures are not severe enough to take the engine out of service, but are enough to cause the mariner to change plans to effect a repair. Twice as often.

A friend has a twin with 3208's, and in the last four months he has had an incredible run of bad luck with the engines: 1. stbd injector line broke on left bank. 2. plunger in injection pump stuck on port. 3. stbd injector line broke on right bank. 4. governor rack stuck at no fuel on port. Each failure caused a canceled trip, that's four trips. In each case the failed engine could be run with some creative fixing, but it was decided not to as other one was going ok. Just looking at the probabilities, if boat was a single with one of those engines, it would have two failures, not four!!

This friend has been a bit tolerant of iffy things on the engines, in part I think because- "hey, I've got twins". On my single, since my engine is more sacred than his, anything that gives me the "iffies", gets handled right away.

Prop fouling is also way more likely on a twin. On my single, I have run over things that came into view at the last second, dead on, and the vee bottom pushes it one way or the other, fortunately taking it clear of the prop.

I'm not suggesting that a single is best for everyone, it is not. Certainly there are benefits to twins. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel confident of my single before heading on a 2000nm trip!!!

As a side not, my bud with twins made it ok last night into Jax Fla from NC. No engine trouble. Whew...
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