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TheAtomicDog

TheAtomicDog

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2020
Messages
157
Vessel Name
Salty Seagull
Vessel Make
SSP Type 211
Hi All,

Having a trawler has been a long-time dream for me, like many of you. Yesterday I pulled the trigger! :)
But there is a twist. I'm an American living in Saint Petersburg, Russia. I bought an old, steel-hulled Soviet trawler: Type 211 SSP, as seen here - https://fleetphoto.ru/projects/965/
My plan is to refit/refurbish while the borders are closed and hopefully next summer coast it to England.
I will have tons of questions and I look forward to discussing everything with you fine folks!
 
Looks like an interesting project and looks a bit like the modern Seapiper. I presume there is no below decks passageway from the aft cabin to the front one or maybe through the engine room?

David
 
Hi David,
There is no aft cabin. The aft section is rather flat. The engine room is midship and everything forward (on my particular boat) is berthing/cabins. No access from berthing to engine room directly. Engine room can only be access from the after part of the wheelhouse.
Here is a pic of my actual boat before the latest paint...
https://fleetphoto.ru/photo/321871/?vid=27535
Kind regards
 
You are right. It does look like a Seapiper. I hadn't heard of that boat before. It's really cool. Mine is a bit bigger in all dimensions, less powerful and way less sophisticated. For the moment, at least.
 
Would be nice to see the interior and pilot house tool.
 
Interesting hull ... she’s got cheeks. Should be very easily driven and good in quartering seas depending on rudder authority. Good bones.

“Coasting to England” ... England must be downhill.
 
She is a true thing of beauty and I imagine you are going to have a lot of good cruises on board.
 
The conversion I get for 29.4 kw is about 40 hp. Is that right?
Can you get engine and machine parts in post soviet Russia?
 
Lepke said:
The conversion I get for 29.4 kw is about 40 hp. Is that right?
Can you get engine and machine parts in post soviet Russia?
Click to expand...

Same as I get.
Any idea of the make of the engine?
 
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Wow, a bit of a project, but well worth it. Good luck with all that, and welcome to TF
 
Nomad Willy said:
Interesting hull ... she’s got cheeks. Should be very easily driven and good in quartering seas depending on rudder authority. Good bones.

“Coasting to England” ... England must be downhill.
Click to expand...

Everything is downhill from here except Murmansk.
 
CharlieO. said:
Is it rude to ask how much a boat like that costs in Russia?
Click to expand...

Usually about 3M rubles, which is only $38k usd right now due the ruble crashing a bit. I paid…considerably less.
 
Lepke said:
The conversion I get for 29.4 kw is about 40 hp. Is that right?
Can you get engine and machine parts in post soviet Russia?
Click to expand...

Yes, it’s about 40hp. Disappointing given its size :).

That is actually my first question for you learned gentlemen: should I replace it?

The previous owner said he never considered it. The engine is original to the boat, fitted in 1980. At 6 knots she burns ~3ltr an hour. Top speed is almost 11 knots. He said this boat will never go faster than 12-15 and he didn’t think he would see that kind of economy out of anything else.

However, it definitely needs servicing and some love. The engine room fills with fumes underway and it leaks a bit of oil. Maybe with a good service it will be better.

Regarding parts and the make, these agricultural engines were used all over the USSR for all kinds of purposes. They are stick/stone simple and any old mechanic in Russia knows them very well. Parts are readily available. As to manufacturer, I can’t find that information. I suspect it was a state enterprise contracted to hundreds of producers.

Pros -
Extremely simple
Cheap to repair and maintain (in Russia)
Very economical

Cons-
Needs service
Anemic power
Noisy

What do you guys think?
 
And thank you all for the warm welcome!
 
TheAtomicDog said:
Yes, it’s about 40hp. Disappointing given its size :).

That is actually my first question for you learned gentlemen: should I replace it?

The previous owner said he never considered it. The engine is original to the boat, fitted in 1980. At 6 knots she burns ~3ltr an hour. Top speed is almost 11 knots. He said this boat will never go faster than 12-15 and he didn’t think he would see that kind of economy out of anything else.

However, it definitely needs servicing and some love. The engine room fills with fumes underway and it leaks a bit of oil. Maybe with a good service it will be better.

Regarding parts and the make, these agricultural engines were used all over the USSR for all kinds of purposes. They are stick/stone simple and any old mechanic in Russia knows them very well. Parts are readily available. As to manufacturer, I can’t find that information. I suspect it was a state enterprise contracted to hundreds of producers.

Pros -
Extremely simple
Cheap to repair and maintain (in Russia)
Very economical

Cons-
Needs service
Anemic power
Noisy

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Keep the engine for now.
When serviced, ask the brand of engine
It is important to get the exhaust system repaired so there is no more exhaust in the engine room or boat. Identify the oil leak and repair if not too expensive.
After a year or two, MAYBE consider changing engines but chances are you will be happy if you can get the exhaust fixed and the oil leak fixed too.
If you try to over power the boat, you will just burn a lot of fuel for 1/2knt more in speed.
The history of your boat, commercial fishing, would lead me/us to guess the boat is design to go great distances on a reasonable amount of fuel, slowly.
 
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Thanks for the input! That is my preference, but I was concerned that the lack of power may be a disadvantage in weather. You are right in terms of design. She’s designed for dragging nets in the Baltic. Speed was never a consideration. She’s got umph down low by design. I put her range over 3000 miles on 1500 ltr. I will confirm with her old owner.
 
TheAtomicDog said:
Thanks for the input! That is my preference, but I was concerned that the lack of power may be a disadvantage in weather. You are right in terms of design. She’s designed for dragging nets in the Baltic. Speed was never a consideration. She’s got umph down low by design. I put her range over 3000 miles on 1500 ltr. I will confirm with her old owner.
Click to expand...



If the engine has worked so far, I’d keep it, fix the immediate issues, and work on refit of the other parts of the boat. If longer term you move the boat out of Russia, then you might consider a repower mostly to have better access to parts and service. But even that might not be a big issue. And a repower I think will be a huge job, so I would keep it low on the priority list.
 
Welcome Aboard!!

I wouldn't replace the engine. Throw some love at it and put your effort and rupls into other projects. My first project would be to replace and enlarge the cabin.

I'm sure you have a million plans.

pete
 
Cool Russia. Welcome to TF, now a World Wide Forum!!! LOL
 
ASD are you saying Russia is the end of the world?
But since the world is round there is no end.

TheAtonicDog,
If you can make 11 knots w the original engine ... keep it.
How many cylinders and all that? Sitck-in-stone .. I like that.
 
Alaskan Sea-Duction said:
Cool Russia. Welcome to TF, now a World Wide Forum!!! LOL
Click to expand...

Awhile back, we had a man from that area. He and his friend bought 2 steel tugs completed hulls and were going to finish them They were great looking boats. He disappeared quietly. Perhaps, they are busy finishing their projects.
 
Just be prepared for a major engine overhaul. Obviously for distance cruising you would carry spare starters, injectors, water pumps, etc but I think I would be tempted to stock up on pistons, valves, rings, mains, bearings, exhaust manifold, injection pumps, etc.

Probably cheaper and easier to build an inventory now rather than wait for a breakdown off some rural fishing village on the English coast.
 
The torque is likely more impressive than the horsepower. On a boat like this the torque matters.

The old make and break engines were simple but were heavy and swung big props at low rpm's.
 
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That's a great boat! We don't have anything like that available in Australia.
Do you know the engine manufacturer? It could be a Belarus. Here in Australia we have tractors from Belarus and long ago a farmer originally from Ukraine told me that Belarus was originally supplying engine for trawlers in Russia. If so, they are very easy to work on and simple. I worked on few of them, mainly 4cyl 900 Tractors
Some history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_(tractor)

All the best, Franco
 

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