fjord/selco 27 coastal??

greetings.

have finally taken the plunge and bought a boat. Selco/Fjord 27 with a 106hp diesel on a shaft.
At the moment it is well up a river and we will spend at least a few years exploring and getting used to it. After that, we want to head off down the Humber and go coastal with the eventual intention of crossing the channel and heading off to the Scandinavian coasts.
It is listed as being semi displacement and although it is getting on a bit, I think it should suit our needs, beng designed for use in the fjords. Does anyone have any knowledge of these craft? What sort of max speed can I expect? The previous owner says 8Knots but I feel he is being a little conservative and to be honest I think he will have been restricted by river speed limits than the boat. How much down on listed HP is a 30 yr old engine likely to be? Is planing likely to be possible? Would a change in prop have any effect?
The boat is plenty big enough for the two of us and I have no wish at this stage to buy another in a few years time. I was hoping that it will do all we want it to and be able to be cruising inshore and coastal waters even when the weather isn't brilliant and would rather put a more powerful engine in or change the prop rather than get a bigger boat. Info is sketchy on these out there but what I have read suggests that they are good seaworthy boats.
Thoughts???

arthor

 

The Fjord 27 was mostly equipped with a Volvo TAMD 40 or --41 in Scandinavian waters. With the TAMD 41 it has a comfortable cruising speed of 18 knots. Yours probably is a bit underpowered; that engine (what is it?) will have difficulties passing the planing hump with anything heavier than a sixpack of beer onboard. You should of course give her a full speed test to see if engine and prop are matching, but don't expect too much.

Otherwise the vessel is built to the "Nordisk Båtstandard", which in essence is the leasureboat verson of the DNV 15 m rule. In my opinion that is in general a good standard, and far better than the diversity of rules under the CE umbrella today.

Welcome to Scandinavia then!

 

volvo number

Thanks for the reply Baekmo. Very informative.

I will check the exact designation of the engine but it is a straight six non turbo. Have done a bit of googling and get the impression that the TAMD 40 is turbocharged and I have seen one listed at 124 HP. Maybe that is what the T stands for??? If mine is the non turbo equivalent then perhaps that is why it is rated at 106hp. I have also got the impression that the 41 is rated at 200hp??
Have visited a US website with a spec list of all pentas. From the production years, the hp and appearance I think mine is a MD32A. Max revs 4000. Now I am thinking that if the boat is suitable in all other aspects then maybe a swap to a newer engine later rather than a new boat? Generally speaking, as long as one doesn't go bonkers is there anything against putting something with more power in a boat?
I have noticed on some adverts for Fjord 27s, it looks like a GRP clinker built appearance type (if you know what I mean). Maybe they had the pokier engines in but Fjord just left the Selco design with the 106hp ones. Still can't see why mine couldn't handle another 50 or so HP with a good professionally matched prop??

regards

arthor

 

me again.

have just found an advert that is of a Selco 27 that has been 'professionally' re-engined with two 4 cylinder fords on sterndrives. That sounds a pretty radical refit to me???

 

The Penta code stands for: T=turbocharged, A=intercooled, MD= marine diesel. So, the TMD 40 is the 3.6 l six, indirect injection with turbo, power ~120 hp; the TAMD 40 gave ~165 hp. Rather thirsty by modern standards. They were soon substituted by the "41" version, which had direct injection. Later came versions "42" and "43", but the TAMD 41 is the best in terms of balance between reliability, power and efficiency. If you go for a Penta, take the late version with a round heat exchanger of tube type; the earlier versions had plate hex;es which are ****!

Yanmars straight four (170 - 230 hp) is a very good alternative.

As for twin installations; yes, for redundancy, if you find light, uncomplicated engines (say Yanmar JH series or some of the Mitsubishi conversions, or the Lombardini) on straight shafts, but no, never with sterndrives, they are too unreliable!

MD 32 and its smaller brother MD 21 are Penta versions of the French Peugeot/Indenor indirect injection engines, and they are now in fact a bit outdated; can be a hassle to find spares aso. They are "high-revving" for their age, and were often mated to too heavy propellers "to keep revs low", which meant that they seldom give full power, so as I said before give her a burst of full throttle and note where all the instruments point.

 

get you home??

Greetings again to all. never ceases to amaze me what a wealth of technical expertise and good nature exists on here.
I have decided (for now) that a few years down the road, I will take get hold of a marine engineering firm and ask them to fit something in the region of 175-200 hp and match a prop to it. Whatever make they think is best.
I know that generally, one engine is better than two but I am paranoid about having auxiliary propulsion. Is it feasible for a wing engine to be fitted in a boat that didn't come with one in the first place?? Is it likely to be howlingly expensive?? My thoughts were that I could use the smaller engine (40 hp ish?) for inland cruising, a spare and also for generating when the main wasn't running. I reckon that in this way, it wouldn't be sat there doing nothing most of the time. Or is an outboard on a bracket a better option despite looking dreadful. What sort of hp would that need to be?

regards

arthor