Hartley 38' south seas sailboat

Good afternoon everyone from Sunny Western Australia, I have recently joined the sailing community in a reasonably serious way after many years, sailing the bays around the Perth coastline, and I find the topics and information fantastically helpful and accurate.
My recent purchase is a Hartley 38' (44' with bowspit") ferro sailboat built around late 80's I believe, I cannot seem to find any alternative interior designs, as the 65 hp Perkins diesel is right in the centre of the boat, with a height above the floor of approx 600 mm. As I intend to enjoy my sailing in a little more comfort than the TS 16' I built a few years ago, I would like to revamp below deck to either a workable plan around the motor, or I would have preferred to move the motor more to aft by about 2 metres, this would mean rotating the motor 180 deg and installing a gearbox or transfer case to run the prop, engineeringly reasonably simple, execution a lot more difficult, the angle of the prop shaft would remain the same (most important) the prop shaft and entering drive shaft would be parrallel with a uni joint midway between the motor and the transfer case (given it is highly unlikely I am able to position the motor at the same angle as the prop shaft)
My choices are simple, work around the motor (takes way too much space) or move it, could take way too much money - the reason I bought it - because I liked the design, space on deck, the ability of single handed sailing.
Has anyone done anything like this to this kind of boat before (moving the motor) or does anyone have any suggestions to where I may locate some interior designs for the hartley 38' that I may find useful.

 

Moving the motor with marine parts will be quite expensive.

If you cruise at moderate RPM 4 "B" series (the fat ones) belts and shives will move 40hp with good reliability.

The other choice is more fuelish , Hydraulic drive with a Hyd motor ,

Advantage here is the Hyd can be used for steering , windlass or even raising the dink or sails.
Hyd can also power an AC 6kw gen set fairly inexpensavly , while underway.

Docking is less stress as full forward to full reverse harms the equipment , not a bit.

FF

 

Thanks Fast Fred,
Thats not a bad idea, utilising a Hydrive, will allow me to cut the prop shaft down from about the 2 metres to approx 300-400 mm allowing the hydraulic motor to be hard mounted nearer the prop, better transfer of power.
The Perkins 65hp can then be mounted in any reasonable location, even to the extent of mounting it further aft, within its own enclosure, and simply run hydraulic hoses with the hydraulic pump belt driven, as you say, via 4 X SP belts direct from crankshaft pulley, still allowing alternator(s) to run on separate belt for motor battery charging, and maybe a genset. having the motor "outside" the confines of my living space, would also lessen the impact of any escaping fumes, and the environmental noise and low pressure pulses a diesel obviously generates, my acoustic engineering training will handle that.
I have plenty of space for hydraulic tanks, only difficulty would be dissapating heat from the oil, then again no reason why oil cooler couldnt be placed on inlet of tank, with a bilge / motor blower wired into the start-up allowing the air to blow across cooler when motor is running.
This probably seems a reasonably good idea as long as I can come to terms with my inability to think "within" the square and itemise exactly what I will "need" the hydrive for and what would be pipe dream stuff - raising and lowering sails etc is an option, but lets be honest a 38' with hydraulic hoses going all over the boat seems not only excess weight in the form of hydraulic oil, hoses, small hydraulic motors, and piping (expensive too) but the motor, although needing to run a little harder for better results, must be balanced based on costs to run and why and how long I woulld need to run it.

 

southseas

I have a south seas and the motor is not a problem, the galley worktop ties in with the engine cover giving more workspace and good security in rough weather. The galley is on the starboard side. What is your layout?