She is a solid build, coming in at over 13 tonnes, giving her the ability to comfortably get home when the weather takes a sudden turn for the worse. Des enjoys boating out to Great Barrier and surrounding areas, so engine reliability is also an important consideration. Thanks to a recent repower, Des is now enjoying his boating with greater engine reliability, performance, and economy to complement the seaworthiness of this quality Kiwi vessel.
It became obvious to Des that his original engines had seen better days as servicing and repair costs increased year on year.
“She’s a heavy vessel and the engines were getting on, so I had Jake Wilkinson from Onshore Marine Engineering assess my options and he did a lot of groundwork and gave me some honest opinions. Having these guys on my side gave me the confidence to go with the repower choice as they had the ability and knowledge to handle all the engineering work from beginning to end. I took their recommendation to fit FPT engines and I’m pleased to say the engines have exceeded my expectations,” explains Des.
Bruce Dickey from Brin Wilson Boat Builders was tasked with deconstructing the furniture, joinery and engine room and subsequently refurbishing it all, including new paint and insulation to make the engine room like new. The repower work also included repositioning engine beds and fabricating brackets, re-routing cooling and fuel circuits and modifying the exhaust system.
With the engines out, it was time to tidy up and upgrade some other systems. The refrigeration system was renewed and a fuel station was added to the aft of the engine bay to include all fuel filters into one serviceable area. All the bespoke fabrication work was carried out by Onshore Marine Engineering in-house at their new workshop in Rosedale.
When asked about the feasibility and costs for repowering, Onshore Marine had this to say: “FPT NZ stock the N60 as fitted into this job, along with the N67 engines, and both are the perfect size and power ranges for many Kiwi launches – at a price point that’s hard to beat. Wherever possible, we reuse the existing gearboxes and helm controls, which helps keep the costs under control. In the case of Audacity, she is a quality vessel built from kahikatea and finished to a very high standard, which is hard to replace. The repower cost is only a fraction of the vessel’s replacement cost, and the owner now has a fantastic launch that really performs. It’s a very desirable boat and with the new N60 engines, now even more so.”
The numbers speak for themselves. Despite being derated to 370hp to stay within the safe limits of the existing gearboxes, the vessel has an easy and economic cruise speed of 20 knots with a top speed of over 28 knots. Des is impressed with his reduced fuel consumption, despite a higher cruising speed, as well as the engine response on the throttle.
Contact Onshore Marine
or Adrian Penman from AB Equipment
www.onshoremarine.co.nz
www.marineindustrial.abequipment.co.nz
