Howdy y'all. We're back from the hospital with our new daughter. Mom and baby are both doing well, two-year old big brother has already contacted an attorney to determine what seniority rights he has, and dad is wondering how he's going to afford college for two kids.
Anyway, back to 2017 and I really didn't have much else going on except, oh, you know a 108 year old house renovation...
a newborn who could scream so loud that the dog would wince...
and a merger taking place with my employer...
Whatever. Nothing I couldn't handle.
As I mentioned in the previous post, the time for half-measures was past and only a reliable power plant from here on would suffice. I took inventory of all the corrective measures I had already attempted on this motor, how much money I had spent, and started to reconsider whether or not I wanted to continue "throwing money at the problem" with an Atomic or re-power with something different. The last thing I would want is to discourage anyone from rebuilding their A-4 but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit at this juncture I seriously considered replacing the Atomic with a 10 kw brushless DC electric motor. I know, I know. I can hear the collective
"here we go again" moans through my computer screen from the helpful A-4 evangelists but hear me out on this and my continued endorsement of the A-4 will become evident.
I'm always up for doing what I can to lessen my environmental impact but this wasn't some naively idealistic notion that I was going to save the planet by converting a single internal combustion engine that consumes 20 gallons of gasoline
a year to electric. The choice of power plant came down to three considerations, in order of importance: 1) total cost 2) reliability & suitability for our usage pattern 3) resale value.
1. Cost
Option 1: Moyer "New Block Engine Exchange" $6907. More than what we paid for the boat. Next option...
Option 2: Moyer "Complete Engine Exchange" $5407. Still more than we paid for the boat. Next...
Option 3: Moyer "short block" option re-using all of my ancillaries $3500. Um, maybe but what other options do we have...
Option 4: Brushless DC motor, controller, throttle, thrust bearing, reduction gear $2800.....but then lithium batteries, custom motor mount, charger etc...+$$??
Option 5:
Estimated cost to rebuild my own engine based upon other's stated rebuild costs $2500
Winner: Tie option 4 or 5
2. Reliability & Suitability
Brushless DC motor with reduction gear option:
I know the undeserved "bad rap" the A-4 gets in the boating community is a point of debate here but the indisputable advantage of an electric motor is fewer moving parts. For
my purposes I identified a few other perceived advantages over an A-4. First, we take the boat out of the slip very infrequently so an electric motor would have less likelihood of reliability issues associated with infrequent use. Second, we didn't anticipate the need to motor for long periods of time with a daily return to a shore-powered slip pretty much assured, exactly the usage pattern that lends itself to an electric drivetrain.
Rebuilding Atomic option:
Assuming a fully rebuilt and subsequently maintained engine, I expected the Atomic to be as reliable as any other internal combustion engine, which is to say, pretty darn reliable.
Winner: Tie
3. Resale Value
This one was a little tougher to compare "apples to apples." My research didn't turn up many electric-converted sailboats for sale so I wasn't confident what a future buyer would find more appealing. We don't intend to sell the boat anytime soon and when we do, we don't expect to get all of our money back. In fact we don't expect to get half of our money back but we do want to get
some of our money back. Given the fact that the boat is located in San Francisco we thought the Tesla-culture of the area would reward an electric conversion and overlook it's one-off nature. Ultimately we predicted the resale value would be most dependent on just having a working engine rather than gas vs electric.
Winner: Tie
Decision
One might wonder why I didn't even consider a diesel conversion in my range of options given all the "conventional wisdom" that diesel Catalina 30's are frequently valued more than an equivalent A-4 powered tub. This was a no-brainer. A diesel (Beta, Kubota, et al) crate motor would cost more than the most expensive new Moyer motor, and would require extensive modifications to the engine stringers to get the output coupling to align with the stuffing box shaft log. The only Catalina diesel conversion I've seen in person had a modified settee bench seat to incorporate a booster-seat riser to accommodate the increased head height of the diesel. It felt like I was a 6 year old sitting on a phone book. Just weird. So ultimately it came down to consideration number 1: Total Cost. There were too many variables with an electric conversion that risked costs spiraling out of control.
Winner: Rebuild my A-4
Once I committed to that course of action, I decided the best way to go about it was possibly the most absurd. Just like the Johnny Cash song, I decided to disassemble the motor
'one piece at a time' and bring the parts home in my checked baggage until the whole motor would be back in my garage in Denver where I had the workspace, tools, and time for the project. The best part? Shipping
'....wouldn't cost me a diiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmeee!' But first, could one frustrated-yet-determined man single handedly lift a partially stripped down A-4 out of the bilge with a little beer courage?
Yes. He. Can.