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Dear 419,
IMHO, 50hp isn’t necessarily “underpowered” for these boats, even when loaded for cruising as mine is. My 54hp Yanmar has provided plenty of power in all circumstances during 8 years of Caribbean cruising. For me, a bigger engine would’ve been a waste of resources.
Assuming a fairly clean boat bottom & prop and reasonable compression in that old Nissan of yours, if you’re only getting 4 knots to windward from a 50hp engine, I’d be looking at the propeller size & especially its pitch as the likely cause, not the horse power.
If the 70-gallon tankage you mentioned is for fuel, its adequacy depends on your sailing plans. For long-term, long-range cruising I’d want more, myself. For world cruising, definitely. Although I sail whenever I can, I’m not a purist when it comes to using the engine. 424’s don’t point very high, but they make excellent motor-sailors very close on the wind with the engine just ticking over in forward as an assist. Overall, the way I cruise, Silverheels’ build-in 80-gallon fuel tank sometimes isn’t enough. So I carry another 30-45 gallons of diesel fuel in jerry jugs, and have occasionally used most of them up on long passages.
Have fun,
Tor
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Silverheels 424#17
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Hey John,
One other part of that electrical system equation is how you use your boat. Weekenders have different needs than marina live-aboard’s than anchorage dwellers than long-gone cruising sailors. If I just wanted to live aboard in a marina with shore power and maybe go out for an occasional overnight sail on the weekend, I’d opt for a couple of Walmart specials. Who cares? Living aboard at anchor, probably something like what you’ve got. Gone with the wind? A big-bucks, long-life gold-plater like Lifeline, if the budget allowed. But you still have to crunch the numbers to know how many amp hours you’ll need.
Tor
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Silverheels 424#17
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A few notes from my new-mainsail order a few years ago:
New Mainsail – $2,450, 9.03 oz, full battens with HD slides, telltales, 2 sets reef points, US-made Dacron, the most UV-resistant American-made sail thread available (it’s worth paying a little extra for it!), and no Chinese fittings anywhere.
Silverheels’ original mainsail had 3 reef points, but the 1st was very shallow and in 4 years of cruising I never did use it. So I opted for just 2 reef points in the new main, and it has proven ample. If I were sailing in high latitudes where a 3rd, very deep reef might be missed, it seems to me the proper sail to be using then would be a storm-trysail. On the rare occasions when the 2nd-reef in the main is still too much canvas up, I just douse it and use the jib & mizzen.
I have free-footed main & mizzen sails now, mainly because that’s what the sailmaker thought best. I haven’t discovered any disadvantages.
Reef early,
Tor
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Pearson 424 ~~ #17
424@silverheels.us
http://www.silverheels.us
——————I emailed back about this with input about sail cloth weight, thread, fittings, number of reefs; specifics I thought would be helpful. Apparently, however, my emails to this forum have not been accepted or posted for ewans. (That’s a pun.) Wish I could’ve been of assistance, but I seem to be excommunicated.
Those of you who mail me to kick 424 ideas around off-forum – a bunch lately – I’m always happy to help if I can.
Reef early, (That’s the best advice.)
Tor
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I don’t think my emails arrive here anymore. Maybe this direct post will work.
-Boat Name SILVERHEELS
-Year 1978
-Hull # 17
-Owner Tor Pinney
-email admiral@silverheels.us
-HIN PEA59017M78E
-Rig Staysail Ketch
-Engine Yanmar 4JHE 54 HP diesel
-USCG # 592676
-Home Port Bristol, RI / Green Cove Springs, FL
-Current Location Cruising / Bocas del Toro, Panama
-Year purchased 2006
-Website http://www.silverheels.us
-Features
• L-galley
• Inner forestay, removable
• Structurally reinforced forepeak and foredeck
• Solid foredeck & custom divided chain locker
• Stern anchor chain locker aft
• Back-plated stem eye-bolt (to lower chain snubber angle)
• Extra fiberglass laminates on keel shoe, aft
• Custom, double-insulated fridge box
• Workbench in the forward cabin
• Main sheet winches repositioned aft for single-handing
• Custom designed, professionally fabricated stainless steel mast pulpits
• Double backstays (in lieu of the standard split backstay)
• Main mast stirrup steps, to the masthead
• Upsized standing rigging & lifelines with StaLok lower terminals (2007)
• New Schaefer 3100 genoa roller furling system (2015)
• New sails 2013; genoa, staysail, fully-battened main & mizzen sails
• Mizzen staysail
• Custom hardtop dodger and bimini (featured in Cruising World magazine)
• Double-vented stainless steel holding tank, overboard & deck pump-outs
• Shaft-Lok prop shaft lock (to prevent propeller freewheeling)
• Dickenson Newport diesel cabin heater w/ independent gravity-feed tank
• Custom seawater intake manifold to reduce thru-hulls by half
• Davits
• Many other custom features for live-aboard cruisingAfter many years of awesome Caribbean cruising, the good ketch Silverheels will be For Sale later in 2017.
Tor
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Captain Tor Pinney
http://www.silverheels.us
admiral@silverheels.us
———————-1 user thanked author for this post.
http://www.tor.cc/articles/c-tip_6.htm
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Hey Dan,
As the saying goes, it’s nice work if you can get it. Really big travelifts can lift a 424 either way without having to slack any rigging. 50- and 25-ton lifts, however, cannot. You have to undo either the head stay or the running backstays (on a ketch). The latter option is just a whole lot easier.
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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Mark,
I hauled out in Tyrell Bay 8 days ago – stern first, although they at first wanted me to undo the headstay and go that way. Despite my assurance that the aft strap aligned with the mizzen mast’s leading edge was correct, they sent a diver in anyway to be sure it missed the prop shaft. Excellent yard manager & crew there.
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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David,
Yards sometimes want us to come in bow first – it just happened to me last week – but I won’t do that. Give them a copy of the Pearson 424 lifting strap profile. Then back in and move the mizzen running backstays and topping lift forward to the mizzen mast, out of the way, so they can position the travelift crossbar about 3-inches abaft of the mizzen mast. The straps then go exactly as shown in the lifting strap profile from Pearson, which means the aft strap aligns with the forward edge of the mizzen mast. Spinning the prop shaft before they lift is a wise precaution, but if the strap is aligned with the mizzen mast’s forward edge it’ll be right.
What you should be asking now is how to block up the boat once it has been hauled out.
Have fun,
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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Bob,
This info is a few years old:
Cutlass Bearing, Brass Casing
Make Johnson Duramax
Model Brad
Length 6″
ID 1-1/2″
OD 2-3/8″
Metal Wall 1/8″
$69.99 at http://www.deepblueyachtsupply.com/products/navalbrassinchcutlessbearing.aspxGood luck,
Tor
Bill,
I repowered 9 years ago with a 54HP Yanmar 4JH4AE, which cost me $16k (very) professionally installed, minus $2k I got for the old Westerbeke by advertising it on Craig’s List. I kept the original Paragon transmission, though, which probably reduced the price of the new engine, but turned out to be a mistake because it wound up costing me $2k for a total, like-new transmission rebuild immediately afterwards. So, after the soot settled, $16k to repower 9 years ago.
This is my 2nd new Yanmar in a cruising sailboat. For me Yanmars have been flawless, needing nothing but clean fuel, oil changes and an occasional impeller replacement. They’re so common you can find mechanics all over the world that know them. No doubt there are other excellent choices, but what I have is perfect so I haven’t gone searching. As for horsepower, I think it’s fair to say I’ve sailed, motored and motorsailed my 424 in every condition there is except a hurricane (knock on wood). The only time I ever have cause to run this engine at full power is for maintenance, i.e., to blow out any carbon build-up. I’ve never lacked for horsepower or speed. On the contrary, I tend to motorsail a fair amount, especially to windward with this boat, running the engine between 1200 and 1600 RPM. When just plain motoring in moderate conditions I run 1600 to 1800 RPM, occasionally 2000 and very rarely 2200. I do not use the engine just to charge batteries, having a Honda generator and other stuff for that. My average diesel consumption rate is 0.6 GPH.
Best of all, every time I turn the key, that big, beautiful Yanmar starts up instantly and doesn’t stop until I turn it off. I can ask no more of an engine than that.
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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Rich,
Seems like if you shift into reverse while sailing at any speed, you could damage, even break, the transmission. Even if the engine is idling in neutral when you do it, the tranny will be spinning “in forward” as fast as the prop is freewheeling. The only safe way I can think of to do that is to first slow the boat down by luffing up so that the prop is turning very slowly.
Tor
Rich, the point of the comparison I was requesting is to find out where the bow is pointed relative to the true wind, not the direction the boat is moving or even the angle to the apparent wind, which will change with boat speed.
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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Actually, they won’t be the same. The GPS readings will include currents and leeway, which may change the angle dramatically. You’re right about the compass deviation, though, if the compass hasn’t been swung and a deviation card worked up. Nevertheless, I believe that’s the reading that will best reveal how the Solent headsail compares to the genoa for pointing ability. Any compass deviation will be about the same for both sails (if the test is done beating into the same wind direction), so in the end you should still be able to determine that one sail points X-degrees higher than the other, which is what I’d like to find out.
Tor
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Silverheels, P-424 #17
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