Thread: Cat diesel??
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Old 09-30-2011, 05:18 AM   #22
Marsh Rat
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City: Onancock Creek,VA
Vessel Name: Tracinda's Treasure
Vessel Model: Pearson 43 Motor Yacht
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 21
RE: Cat diesel??

I used to deliver a 46' Whiticar Sportfish from FL to VA each spring and back in the fall. It had the 3208TA/375 hp I never had a problem with the engines. On the last run before the owner re-powered with John Deere's the engines had a little over 10,000 hrs. At cruise speed around 2300 RPM's they burned around 28 gals an hour combined.
On my owned boat 43' Pearson. I bought it with 340 Chrysler's (gas). They were rated at 240 hp. When I re-powered I put Volvo TAMD41's in rated at 200 hp. I find that I cruise around most of the time at 1800 - 2000 RPM's and that gets me 8.5 to 9.5 kts depending on tide, wind etc. The turbos don't really spool up until 2500 or so. I can get a 15 kt cruise if I push them up to 3500 they are rated for 3800.
I hind sight I wish I had put in the lower rated natural engines and turned them a little more.
With the current set up when we cruise around at displacement speeds for a couple of days I will usually bump her up on plane for 30 minutes to an hour coming home. It will smoke for a few minutes as I power up.
As has been said here already, with the couple of hundred hours a year I get to put on my boat it probably won't hurt a thing as long as I own the boat. But I feel like I over powered and would have been more efficient with smaller engines.

Of course I have a friend that's a Volvo dealer and I got a deal on the engines.
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