Hey all,
Jim and Jess here on s/v Hajime Hull #82. We bought her in Alameda, CA in July 2010... formally s/v Just Ducky et al
After 7 weeks in dry dock in 2010 at Napa River Marina where we redid the rudder mounts, bottom blisters, plumbing and electrical, standing rigging, running rigging, nav. lights, etc... We took her back to live aboard in Alameda CA... Learned to sail her in SF Bay!
We left San Francisco in May 2012 for a shakedown cruise up around Vancouver Island and back by September 2012. Then in December 2012 headed south to Mexico where we have been since...
The $3500 we put into the ol' Westerbeke 40 in 2010 for hoses, new heat exchanger and general maint., however, did not (and should have) included the very inexpensive oil pressure and fuel pressure sending switches!!! Fuel pressure failed just before the May 2012 trip north and the oil pressure failed (catastrophically) on April 1, 2013 at 3:00 AM when we froze up the #1 crank shaft bearing and screeched her to a halt about 10 miles off shore around Manzinillo, MX., all because all the oil had pumped out of the engine and into the bilge through the failed oil pressure switch!
Brief saga then to the Beta point! We rebuilt with a well known Canadian Mechanic in Mazatlan summer 2013 and got about 120 hours out of her before the crankshaft broke into two pieces just behind the #1 bearing journal. We are pretty sure the rebuilder did not adjust the bearings for the 0.010 under size grind work done to the #1 crank journal...
It was then that we decided on the Beta 30 as a replacement motor. We called Beta in GB and were told that they had never shipped direct to Mexico(?). However, their ship direct quote was so much lower than we got from a US distributor for Beta that we just had to import the motor ourselves... The beta 30 on s/v Hajime was imported, installed, and commissioned by us in April 2014! After you live through other mechanics removing your Westerbeke 40 and then replacing it and then removing it again all with a chain fall on a well supported boom, you kinda get the hang of it! And the Beta 30 was about 150 pounds lighter...
We put s/v Hajime up June 01 for the Hurricane season in San Carlos, Sonora MX (Marina Seca). It is our first break off the boat for longer than a couple weeks since July 2010....
So how is the Beta 30 doing in the Tartan 37? We have been blogging most of this stuff since buying the boat, can be found at
http://svhajime.wordpress.com ... Just look around April 2013 for the beginning of the motor bloga or straight to the beta stuff in Jan or Feb 2014!
Beta 30? She is a little over-propped with the 3 blade 16x12 prop and can only make 3300 to 3400 RPM WOT in calm water. WOT of 3600 RPM up to 3700 RPM is what we should be able to get. If I can find a shop in San Carlos/Guaymas to re-pitch the prop down to a 10 or 11 pitch, I think it will be perfect! We can easily do 6.5 knots the way she is, but it would be nice to have the top end of the power curve in the nastiness!
I would do it again! The beta is not the same motor as the Westerbeke 40. I always had power with the ol' Westerbeke and never had a WOT lower than the governor with the 3 blade 16x12 prop so I was concerned when we discovered the over prop issue... But I am sure a little less pitch we will be able to run 3600 RPM plus and it will still do hull speed plus.
Also, the beta came with brackets built to our measurements by Beta for the Tartan motor bed so we did not have to cut and paste anything during install! All the new motors I looked at, stock, would have needed modification to the motor bed or to the mount brackets!
Jim
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