Hartley 27, And i seriously need help

Hello people now i may of come to the wrong place, this is my first time here but im in more than a pickle.

Im the owner of a Hartley Tide Song 27ft, now this is actually in britian it was built on a farm from 1967 to about 1974. It was built to have outdrives but was never set up with engines so i want to put it back to shaft drive which isnt too hard but its finding where the engine is meant to sit, how the angle of the shaft is and you know what i mean.

The thing is i have no blueprints or information for the boats stability or capacity but a lot of these vessels have 6 cylinder engines. I have a perkins p6 (85hp 6 cylinder) to go in it but im really struggling with trying to work out where its got to go and where the shaft is meant to go as most of these have mid mounted engines with what seems short shafts.

If anyone could supply Hartley new tide plans or blueprints or even send me in the right direction or even better then feel free because im stuck on what to do really.

Ask as much as you want il try to answer it.

Cheers Joe.

 

If it was originally built to have outdrive, I’d keep the weight pretty well towards the stern.
A V drive can accomplish this.
Your 6 cylinder Perkins is very heavy for a motor that only produces 85 hp, performance on a 27’ hull will be weak.
Visit their website, they offer study plans for a small fee that should shed some light on your question.

 

Well Hartleys boats where "boats for amatures" and my varient was originally shaft drive like when your building they suggest shaft but i have letters from the orginal builder and richard hartley the designer talking about installing z drives instead. He wanted twin 50hp Diesels or twin 80hp petrols.

But enfeild 130 z drives are hard to find parts for in the UK so i sold them and i want to install shaft drive back in. This particular design ive seen its common to have a 6 cylinder on shaft drive.

Well it was the only decent 6 cylinder i could find and then again these boats ive seen with bedford lorry engines so thats probably even heavier! I dont mind it being weak to be fair as il be on the canal system most of the time and a bit of costal cruising.

I understand your suggesting to purchase a blueprint/build design for a similar boat but i dont know if the company is really active or not anymore thats the issue as richard hartley passed away and theres no location for the company. What i dont want to do is purchase something and not be able to get a refund/even receive the product.

Thank you for your information though i will have a look into v drives.