Advice please?

[dmr]

I reckon its a bit overpriced, its a little boat and 20 years old, and somewhat "non standard". Also as a portholed tug its a traditonal boat but lacks an engine room/engine which is a big part of trad boats. It looks quite good, for the right owner it would still be a very nice boat.

 

..................Dave

[WotEver]

8 hours ago, tehmarks said:

it has been on the market, I'm reasonably certain, coming up to a year at least.

I think the ‘gas free’ aspect will put a lot of people off. It would me. 

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, WotEver said:

I think the ‘gas free’ aspect will put a lot of people off. It would me. 

Yes, we all like different things. there is not much at all about it I like. Gas free would immediately make it a no no. The stupid cocooned engine that caused Beta a huge amount of headache and warranty claims. Tiny interior space, trad stern, cross bed, the list of no nos is huge but there is always someone looking for a toy and for that it will suffice.

[OldGoat]

34 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Yes, we all like different things. there is not much at all about it I like. Gas free would immediately make it a no no. The stupid cocooned engine that caused Beta a huge amount of headache and warranty claims. Tiny interior space, trad stern, cross bed, the list of no nos is huge but there is always someone looking for a toy and for that it will suffice.

Boris-Smelly has hit the nail on the head and seved me waffling on about what Beta did in their engine area.

 

From my IBM days  I learn the KISS principle - Seemple.

Most folks want a boat to be functional - more and more as liveaboards, thus you don't want complicated bits, of which the inland marine techies have little knowledge or ability to repair when the go wrong - or mebe need simple maintenance. Indeed there may be something of value in having a horse to pull the boat and its output to feed the tomatos on the roof (!)

[Iain_S]

19 hours ago, OldGoat said:

Beta still do something similar to the propgen, but they call it 'a hybrid drive' - perhaps 'propgen' is registered to someone else?

 

https://betamarine.co.uk/portfolio-item/kc-hybrid-propulsion/

 

Methinks it's a boat for cruising and not living on (sure to get a lot of comments for that statement), buth the accomodation is a bit like camping......

 

 

The propgen is a bit different in concept. It has an engine which runs at a fixed speed of 1500 r.p.m., driving a 240V generator, mounted above the engine, via the crankshaft pulley. In standard form, the drive is transmitted to the propellor by a gearbox fitted with a trolling valve, so that the single lever control operates the gearchange and trolling valve, rather than gearchange and engine speed.

 

One of our local canal societies has a trip boat equipped with one.

[Tony Brooks]

And the Beta hybrid drive is just like a hybrid car. Diesel engine, electric motor/generator, big battery bank so definitely not a Propgen.

 

I am  till trying to work out where the bit about it being a hydraulic drive came from unless the boat in question has been converted. I suppose a variable swash plate pump or motor would allow a varying prop speed at a fixed engine speed but as Iain says that's not how the standard Propgen works.

[ditchcrawler]

8 hours ago, Iain_S said:

The propgen is a bit different in concept. It has an engine which runs at a fixed speed of 1500 r.p.m., driving a 240V generator, mounted above the engine, via the crankshaft pulley. In standard form, the drive is transmitted to the propellor by a gearbox fitted with a trolling valve, so that the single lever control operates the gearchange and trolling valve, rather than gearchange and engine speed.

 

One of our local canal societies has a trip boat equipped with one.

And other boaters shout at you to slow down because they don't hear the engine revs drop

8 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

And the Beta hybrid drive is just like a hybrid car. Diesel engine, electric motor/generator, big battery bank so definitely not a Propgen.

 

I am  till trying to work out where the bit about it being a hydraulic drive came from unless the boat in question has been converted. I suppose a variable swash plate pump or motor would allow a varying prop speed at a fixed engine speed but as Iain says that's not how the standard Propgen works.

ARS did a variable speed control using a variable swash plate. Mine is just a simple fixed ratio job and I drop the engine revs

[matty40s]

I steered one of these recently, it was a pain, you had to go to mid throttle in either direction before the drive kicked in and then you could reduce it. The slowest speed once brought back was far quicker than I would normally use for tick over 

It was supposedly an engineers dream, I didnt rate it.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by matty40s