Old fat men and engine rooms

kulas44 said:

Except, how much "living, useable, everyday" space do you give up in a 48 foot boat to be able to sorta stand up while looking at your engines.

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Nothing lost that I can tell.

There is one other factor in increasing head room in addition to any design or stability issues. Cost. Building a house with 9' ceilings costs more than 8'. Same issues with a boat.

Ex Sailor said:

Agreed on the single engine access. It's too bad that they never made a left / right configuration for a twin engine boat and have the serviceable components ( pumps, filters, alt. etc. on the inside. ) In my case ( Kha Shing 40 @ Twin Cummins ) I have by boat standards a decent engine room but one engine is almost non - serviceable. Frank B.

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Another advantage of having a boat that was engineered in the USA by Americans who think like most people in first world countries. My (POS) Carver has remote dipsticks....oil and fuel filters...as well as strainers and seacocks in a central location. Now if they just could have made a remote raw water pump...

kulas44 said:

Except, how much "living, useable, everyday" space do you give up in a 48 foot boat to be able to sorta stand up while looking at your engines.

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The Defever pretty much wins for checking all boxes in a boat under 50 feet. Phenomenal engine room as well as tremendous space throughout the boat. My only gripe would be line handling on the sundeck boats...which is remedied by a cockpit.

Wet heads. I have found two principal reasons why couples give up cruising, health and the wife is not happy. Thus the question is not whether you spend a lot of time in the head but whether the wife is happy.

Baker said:

Now if they just could have made a remote raw water pump...

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Bake: Can do! There's at least two Krogens running around having gensets with capped-off impeller areas running A/C raw water pumps for feed. Of course, they have auto shut-down sensors should the temp get too high. My Northern Lights 4.5KW unit has a pump with a ceramic seal on one side of the shaft. I've just put in a new seal and have a spare complete pump, but I've thought of doing the same thing if the seal craps out again.

A couple of years ago I saw a marinized International DT466 with an electric waterpump for raw feed. Seems reasonable if you have sufficient GPM and lift capacity through the engine's RPM range, and making it remote is a matter of extending the lines. They're out there.

healhustler said:

Bake: Can do! There's at least two Krogens running around having gensets with capped-off impeller areas running A/C raw water pumps for feed. Of course, they have auto shut-down sensors should the temp get too high. My Northern Lights 4.5KW unit has a pump with a ceramic seal on one side of the shaft. I've just put in a new seal and have a spare complete pump, but I've thought of doing the same thing if the seal craps out again.

A couple of years ago I saw a marinized International DT466 with an electric waterpump for raw feed. Seems reasonable if you have sufficient GPM and lift capacity through the engine's RPM range, and making it remote is a matter of extending the lines. They're out there.

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Something to consider. You would absolutely positively have to have a raw water flow alarm system! Those March/Taylormade pumps are awfully reliable but they do not like to run dry. Of course you would have to have a continuous AC power source....complicating things!

Not always possible either, but belt driven water pumps don't have to be on the engine...could be mounted to a stringer on a better side. If gear driven and the engine has belts anyway....could change over to belt driven.


Sometimes it is just developing an special technique to get to the pump, even removing it over opening it and if necessary creating special tools to help.


Undecided whether I would try electric on a main....no problem with a genset.

"Now the better manufacturers have figured out how to compensate and increase head room without causing other issues."

Stability and low easy motion are vastly over rated?

IMO, engine room layout is far more important than being able to stand up through out the room. If the engine(s) are mounted so low as to require bending down or kneeling to do pre-start checks, much of the advantages of a stand up room is lost. Having all checks and more frequent service items including the raw water pump, on the same side for the engine and generator, is a better design. Having hatches that open over the walk way on the service side of the engine is an added bonus. Having wide enough walk ways to allow a stool to sit on while doing maintenance is a big plus.

The 2 rectangular openings on the right are hatches to the service side of the engine and generator. The walk way next to the engine is a very reasonable place to sit on a stool and work with all fuel related valving separators and transfer / polishing pump located on the outboard side of the walk way.



Ted

Bay Pelican said:

Wet heads. I have found two principal reasons why couples give up cruising, health and the wife is not happy. Thus the question is not whether you spend a lot of time in the head but whether the wife is happy.

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I posted above that all boats are compromises. If the boat gets to be so big to please "the wife" that you can't afford to buy or operate it, you haven't gained anything, you have lost.

My wife is perfectly happy with "our little boat" and she's happy using the shower in the head or on the swim platform. Usually, if the wife (or the husband) enjoys using the boat for whatever you use it for, they will be willing to compromise on things. Of course you have to buy the right boat for the purpose in the first place.

Your mileage may differ.