On Schedule !

The engine

Neither of us are the slightest bit mechanically minded when it comes to propulsion units - and a few other things besides. However, we've been on the receiving end of a number of different engines on both trip boats and hire boats and knew that we wanted something on the quiet side. In some respects the noise level played a greater part in our choice than the power of the engine.

One of the trip boats that we've worked on had suffered badly with vibration from the engine and it is only since that boat has had a new engine that we've discovered how vibration free an engine can be when fitted well.

A problem that we've also experienced over the years is that of trying to hold a conversation with someone on the bank / lock side, no matter how brief, over the noise of the engine. Hence the high priority that we've accorded to the noise level from the power unit. A hospital silencer was suggested to us as a means of keeping the noise levels down and we included this on our order.

A few months before we placed the order for our boat we'd met a passing boater at a lock. He was on his boat and we were on lock side some 30 - 40 feet away and yet we were able to hold a reasonable conversation over the noise of his engine. We enquired of the make of the engine and discovered that it was from Beta Marine. Imagine our pleasure when we discovered that Reeves normally install Beta Marine engines as a matter of course, although they will install others if requested.

We understand that a Beta 38 is the more normal engine for a boat the size of ours, Having once had a hire boat that didn't like stopping, an engine that can stop the boat when necessary is another of our requirements! We presume that the bigger the engine the better it will be at stopping. Time will tell, but we were even more sold on Reeves when they told us that they would be fitting the Beta 43 to our boat, even if that does mean that we have to pay the extra!

Studious readers of these pages will have noted that we wanted a bit of space at the rear to accommodate a small work table for tackling odd jobs. We'd initially allowed what we'd hoped would be enough space for this in our plans. However, we soon found that we were running short of space as we went through the design phase and after talking to Reeves reduced the engine room space to just 4ft to enable us to fit the other things that we wanted in the rest of the cabin. What we didn't know at the time and Reeves never mentioned was that by making this reduction we were making it impossible to accommodate the hospital silencer without compromising other things that need to go within the engine room space.

We learnt this from our engine fitter and, after some discussion with him, agreed that we'd stick with the traditional silencer. Only time will tell whether we made the right decision. This then is another example of us not, through ignorance, thinking things through thoroughly before committing ourselves. At the rate that we're going, if we had £5 for every mistake that we've made so far, we could almost have paid for the boat!

The boat's initial trip will be without any form of covering over the engine, save for something that will provide somewhere for the steerer to stand safely. We will judge the noise situation from this and as we subsequently fit out the boat we will experiment with various ideas for enclosing the engine. We just hope that we have made the right decision about the silencer. If not, it could be quite expensive to rectify.

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