Well, I thought I had better contribute to the “stories” section given that I encourage everyone who is a member to give us a brief history of his or her beloved craft, so here we are.
We bought “Osprey” in April 1999 from a marina in Northwich, Cheshire for a bargain price of £7500,
(far too cheap)!!

I never intended using her anywhere but the Broads so I promptly arranged for her to be transported to Oulton Broad at a cost of £320.00.

The first season was excellent, at that time she had a Volvo AQ170c 6cyl petrol through a 280 outdrive leg and did we have some fun on “Breydon Water” We are a family of four and although sometimes a little cosy we have found the boat provides everything we ask of her.

With the hull freshly anti-fouled and a service done she would cruise at 20k and could reach the dizzy heights of 25 k flat out, (not at all bad with four people and associated belongings on board!!)

At the start of my third full season I decided a new engine was the order of the day (there must be one hell of a market here if only in Fairline Holidays!!) but unlike the previous 2 re-engining stories I decided to go Diesel and to do the conversion myself!

The engine I opted for was light, simple and efficient a 60hp normally aspirated Ford Escort 1.8 engine of 1993 vintage,

. All the marinising parts were sourced from Lancing Marine and ASAP supplies except for the adapter plate for the bell housing to the engine, which I had to have made locally from my own drawings.

Once the engine was bolted to the bell housing I had to make supports for the engine mountings as these were in a totally different position to what was required.

The most problematic area by far was the exhaust system; with an out drive leg the exhaust gasses are taken outside via the leg. Because the 1.8 diesel engine was a totally different dimension, it meant that the exhaust from the heat exchanger was impossible to route to the exhaust on the out drive leg without serious modification. (My intention had always been to do the conversion so that should I decide to go petrol again I could simply exchange the engine in say half a day, to this end I have not hacked away or chopped any part of the original installation including wiring. Etc I have merely extended or made adaptors to suit)

Getting back to the exhaust I realised I had only one option and this was to run the exhaust either through the transom or out through the side of the hull.

Because I am not a great fan of drilling holes unless absolutely necessary I ran the exhaust hose to the starboard side outlet used for the self draining cockpit, having replaced the plastic skin fitting with a stainless exhaust trumpet.

Also in order to ensure sufficient drainage for the cockpit this hose was diverted to the exhaust via the out drive leg, so again no problem if we revert to petrol.

The swap took around 8 hours with the boat in the water and the diesel engine was in and running (I had marinised the engine prior to taking it down to the boat) There have been teething problems and a substantial loss of performance, for example we can now only squeeze 10k out of her but on the plus side a full seasons cruising for a mere £120.00 as opposed to £475.00 the previous season is some saving, and on the broads especially, 10 k is almost 6mph over the limit!

At sea she is fine although we can only make 9 knotts so we need to be choosy as to when to head in which direction.
The total cost of the conversion was around £1300.00 including the second hand engine from a local breakers yard.

Would I do it again????…………………………..Yes, for my needs the economy and reliability of a diesel are the deciding factors although as I mentioned earlier we have had one or two problems but nothing too worrying,

If anyone out there is thinking of converting to Diesel and would like the “Honest” version of what is involved please let me know, I will help in any way I can.

The magazine “Boat Mart” has 2 very useful features on converting a car or van engine for marine use these are in Dec 2000’s issue and Dec 2002. (A copy of which I will gladly send to anyone interested)

Cap’n Gary