Introduction

For quite some time, and especially during our last two or three years of cruising, we have contemplated repowering our boat, the Potentate.  It's not an easy decision to make - perhaps more difficult than the actual project, as it turns out.  Being equally versed in psychology and diesel mechanics (neither is a strong suit), I have come to realize the 5 Steps of Repower.

 

1. Denial

In this stage, we refuse to accept or are not cognizant of the facts.  In our case, the facts were that our engines were tired, needed repair, and there were no parts available in the known universe.  As long as we could ignore or minimize our engines' faults and deficiencies, we could continue to cruise and enjoy all the benefits that the Pacific Northwest and Inside Passage have to offer.  Even in their diminished capacity, the engines faithfully (for the most part) propelled us to wherever we wished to go.  When cold, they required an external heat source to warm the engine blocks before they would even consider starting - but they were massive enough that once warmed up they held enough heat for an unassisted restart within 2 or 3 days.  During this stage when parts would fail we learned to make our own replacements or otherwise work around the issue.  We looked at their quirks and failings as idiosyncrasies and made changes in our methods and plans to accommodate them.

2. Frustration

Frustration happens when Denial no longer works.  When the discovery of an exhaust leak leads to a four month saga of first searching for a new part, then being turned away from machine shops and hearing an estimate in excess of $4000 from a foundry before your father-in-law, a mechanical wizard extraordinaire, steps in and manufactures the new part in his basement from a 54 pound slug of cast iron, it's nearly impossible to deny the inevitable.  The same goes for the discovery of a fuel leak in an injector pump.  It wasn't spraying out of a high pressure area - just a drip from the fuel shutoff lever.  But, the pump was made by a company in France that had gone out of business over 30 years ago, and again no parts were available.  No injector repair shop would touch it.  Oh, I did get an offer from a company in Pennsylvania to rebuild it for only $3500.  We eventually took it apart ourselves and repaired it with a 69 cent O-ring from McClendon Hardware.  Our quest had taken a few months, but the victory of our repair nearly sent us back to stage 1 Denial.

3. Bargaining

 In the bargaining stage, we seek compromise.  Perhaps the inevitable can be avoided if only the last makeshift repair was truly the last makeshift repair for the foreseeable future.  We weren't able to stay in this stage for long, which led us into...

4. Depression

 At this point the inevitability of the situation is realized, along with the associated costs and loss of cruising time.  The realization that diesel engines cost a lot of money becomes overwhelming, especially if you need two of them.  Your friends don't necessarily understand your angst; they think that because you have a yacht you must be wealthy.  In reality, the opposite is true - because you have a yacht your discretionary funds are limited.  The way out of step 4 is through rationalization.  With an otherwise healthy boat, rationalization is typically used to alleviate the "pain at the pump" - the 400% rise in the cost of fuel over the years.  Instead of looking at it as costing 4 times as much for your trip to the Gulf Islands or Desolation Sound you factor in all the other costs.  Say it costs you $10,000 a year for your moorage, insurance and typical maintenance.  Now, if your summer fuel costs have increased from $500 to $2000 - that's an increase from $10,500 to $12,000 for the  year, just 14% or so higher.  Sounds a lot better than 400%.  With some creativity, rationalization can be made to work for new engines as well.  If you're successful you'll move on to the next step.

 

5.  Acceptance

 You're now ready to make the move and embrace the reality of the tasks before you.  What was once just talk or idle chatter turns to action as you develop a plan and begin taking steps to make it happen.  You research various engine brands and models as well as the techniques that will be required to remove and replace those engines.  Do you go all out for new, or economize with rebuilt or used, 'running take out' engines.  What about the transmissions and running gear?  Will the boat have to be in the yard or can you do it while afloat?  I'm pretty sure I achieved acceptance the day we used a Skil Saw to cut a hole in the salon roof of our classic Chris Craft.