As we speak, Mavis is being scheduled for a ‘heart transplant’. The consensus is that our “trusty” Westerbeke needs rebuilding and it’s just not worth rebuilding. It seems that although they have a good name for being long running engines, the Mitsubishi-based Westerbekes have a tendency to suffer from cracked rings which score the cylinders and require a rebuild. For just a few thousand dollars more than doing a rebuild we have opted to have a new Beta Marine 30 installed. The advantages here are numerous. We get a brand new engine with a 5 year warranty. We get a new starter, alternator, heat exchanger, transmission… Everything. And modern diesel engines have come a long way in the 15 years since Mavis was new.
We are looking forward to more power, better fuel economy, quieter operation and — most importantly, the reliability I need to take us to the Bahamas and beyond.
So while we certainly did not budget for a new engine while on this trip, the good news is the voyage WILL CONTINUE after a brief pause here in Oriental.
We had planned to move the boat to the yard and unload her and come home for a few weeks but our mechanic has advised us that we should sit tight. He only needs about a week to get us from where we are now to sea trialing our new engine.
I never thought we could be this elated to be spending a large chunk of money on something like this but we had almost resolved to scrapping the trip and coming down in the spring to sail Mavis NORTH. That would have sucked.
Stay tuned for the continuing voyages of S/V Mavis!