Salinas, CA asks:

I remember reading that a marine diesel engine should be overhauled every 10,000 hours. I am wondering how many hours was on the Nordhavn ATW 40 before you left and how many will be on them when you finish? Will you have to overhaul or replace the engine and/or the genset?

Dan Streech responds:

Before leaving on the ATW voyage, NORDHAVN had been used for a summer cruise in Alaska for PAE employees, so when she departed for Hawaii on the beginning of Leg 1, she had about 800 engine hours. The ATW voyage will put another 4,000 hours on the main engine.

The Lugger L668 is rated for 20,000 to 30,000 hours between overhauls, so you can see that it is nearly impossible for a pleasure boater to "wear out" his engine. These engines just go on seemingly forever unless there is some kind of accident such as flooding, loss of coolant or loss of oil.

Upon our return home with NORDHAVN, we will give the engine (and generator) a deep service, a good cleaning and maybe change out the injectors before delivering her to her new owner.

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