Engine Room

DYI Department: Engine Mounts Matter, Inspect Them Regularly

By George Day on May 16, 2025 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Maintenance

Tucked underneath your engine(s), the lowly engine mounts are out of sight and, mostly, out of mind. But, these four steel and rubber bits of hardware are crucial to the well-being and smooth-running of the whole drive train –engine, transmission, shaft, shaft seal, cutlass bearing and prop. So, a little care is due. As part of routine maintenance such as changing the engine’s oil, filters and zincs, it is important to shine a light on the engine mounts to see how well they are aging. Aging is the key word because engine mounts deteriorate over time and hours of use.…

Fire Prevention Can Save Lives on Your Boat

By George Day on April 10, 2025 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Maintenance

If you have ever seen a fiberglass boat catch fire and burn, particularly a gasoline-powered boat, you will appreciate just how devastating a fire afloat is. Fiberglass is highly flammable and fuel tanks are bombs just waiting to have their fuses lit. So, as we get into the spring and many of us get our boats ready for the summer boating and cruising seasons, cast your thoughts to what you need to do to prevent a fire from starting and then how to deal with the emergency should it occur. Coast Guard approved fire extinguishers are required on all motorize…

Volvo Hybrid IPS Drives Enhance Performance and Fuel Efficiency

By George Day on March 14, 2025 Cruising Life, Electronics, Engine Room

Volvo Penta has been working on electric propulsion and hybrid diesel-electric systems for a decades. The diesel-electric system coupkled to IPS drives is now available for commercial and recreational use and provides an elegant and proven technology that will allow boats to run silent and carbon free. The electric motor in the system fits between the main engine and the IPS pod and is engaged with a clutch. The motors run off a bank of lithium-ion batteries that can be sized for each boat’s specific tasks and requirements. “A hybrid provides a flexible solution, one that maintains the high efficiency…

Learn Diesel Maintenance and Repair Online at BoatHowTo.com

By George Day on November 21, 2024 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Palm Beach Boat Show

This week, the gurus at BoatHowTo.com announced that their new course called Marine Diesel Engine Maintenance was live on their website and ready for attendees. The 11-hour series of seminars is given by Nigel Calder and Dr. Jen Athenstadt, the founders of the instructional website and developers of the courses. The diesel maintenance course is the second in-depth course offered by the website. It follows the two courses on marine electrics, Boat Electrics 101 and Advanced Marine Electrics, which have been attended by more than two thousand boat owners and industry professionals. Nigel Calder will be well known in the…

Greenline Offers Responsible Power Packs, Eliminating the Need for Generators

By George Day on November 21, 2024 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Gear

The Slovenian builder of efficient motor yachts from 39 to 58 feet announced this week that is is offering a new option that will eliminate the need for generators on all of their diesel-powered boats. A genset has been an integral part of traditional diesel technology but Greenline now has a better solution. On all of their models with diesel engines, they now are adding the Responsible Power Pack that includes huge solar arrays and large lithium battery banks that replace the need for a separate generator. When the boat is at anchor, the panels charge the batteries with enough…

Cruising Odyssey Tests Seakeeper’s Revolutionary Ride Stabilizer System

By George Day on November 7, 2024 Cruising Life, Engine Room

Last Friday, during the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, I had the opportunity to go out on a 37-foot center console powered by twin Mercury Verado 300-horsepower engines. The boat was equipped the Seakeeper’s new Ride stabilizers, and we were going to put the system to a test in some bouncy water. Seakeeper is well-known for their gyro boat stabilizers that have become increasing popular in the cruising fleet. The gyro systems use heavy flywheels spinning around an axis to create the stabilizing force to hold the boat level, much the way a spinning top is hard to reorient due to…

Aspen Joins Forces with Yanmar in New C100

By Peter Janssen on May 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life, Engine Room

Yanmar and Aspen Power Catamarans just announced a partnership where Aspen will use Yanmar’s 250-hp diesel in new 32-foot Aspen C100 power cats. The two companies said that the combination of the new Yanmar with Aspen’s unconventional asymmetrical proa type hulls will set new standards in the power catamaran field. Indeed, they said that the new Yanmar 4LV250 achieved an eye-opening 4.1 mpg at 18 mph in the Aspen C100, a 32 percent increase in efficiency over previous engines. Larry Graf, who founded Aspen in 2008, said the new Yanmar was also light, smooth and quiet. He praised Yanmar for…

Yamaha Testing New Hydrogen Outboard

By Peter Janssen on April 30, 2024 Engine Room

Yamaha has built the world’s first recreational hydrogen-powered outboard and is testing it on a 26-foot Regulator. So far, the range is only 50 nm, but Yamaha hopes to double that by the end of the year. Yamaha is dedicated to developing clean energy. Earlier this week, it introduced a hydrogen-powered golf cart at the Yamaha Marine Innovation Center n Kennesaw, Georgia. It worked with Roush Industries for the engineering involved in mounting three massive carbon-wrapped hydrogen tanks in the hull of a customized Regulator 26XO. The three tanks hold the equivalent of 25 gallons of gas. The high-pressure tanks…

BluNav Studies Whales: Builds New Prop

By Peter Janssen on April 10, 2024 Cruising Life, Engine Room

BluNav, a French start-up, has a new idea for boat propellers. After studying humpback whales, it developed a Whale Design prop for its electric drives with the blades set on a magnetically driven inner ring. So far, of course, traditional boat propellers have been mounted on a shaft. But BluNav likes to think outside the box. Founded in 2020, the company wants to promote electric power for recreational and commercial vessels. Recently it has taken a hybrid approach, developing its BlueSpin electric propulsion system that can be used with a boat’s original combustion engine. The BlueSpin provides silent propulsion with…

Sharrow Unveils New Contra-Rotating Props

By Peter Janssen on March 27, 2024 Engine Room

Sharrow Marine apparently believes, with good reason, that two are better than one. Its revolutionary no-blade prop represented the first major design change in fixed propellers in a century when it was introduced in 2020. Now, the Michigan company just announced that it will make an upgrade, the CX contra-rotating prop for outboards and sterndrives. The two props will rotate in opposite directions on a single shaft. Sharrow will offer the CX for Volvo Penta DuoProp sterndrives, Mercury V12 outboards, Bravo 3 sterndrives, and Suzuki 300- and 350-hp outboards. The basic Sharrow uses loops to produce thrust, not blades. The…

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