I am interested in repowering my Pearson 40. It is 40' LOA with 22,800 lb displacement. From a fairly knowledgeable friend who has who has done just that on his Pearson 40 with the Beta 50. He believes that the Beta 43 would be adequate since it is replacing a 36 hp Westerbeke which is DOA. Any comments? Any suggestions of dealers or companies in the Kemah Tx area that would be competent to undertake a major project like this? Any help or suggestions is much appreciated.
If your boat is the one with the direct drive transmission and the remote Walter V drive with 2:1 ratio, I would use the Beta 43. This engine has all the power that the boat needs and has already been fitted to a good number of Pearson 40's.
We do have a dealer in Kemah. That is Yacht Equipment Services. They have worked on a few beta installations as have some of the other yards on the same street.
The engine spec that you need is as follows:
Beta 43 with Velvet Drive adaptor kit
shallow oil pan,
8" high rise exhaust elbow.
I suggest that you have your old Velvet Drive transmission (or Paragon hydraulic) rebuilt with new clutch plates and seals to ensure that you have a properly reliable power train. The V Drive can also be freshened up by Walter at a reasonable cost.
Stanley,
Thanks for answering so quickly. I do have the Walter V drive and it was rebuilt a few years back. I assume it has the 2:1 ratio but I will check. The transmission is the old Paragon SAOD which I believe is direct drive. It has not been rebuilt that I know of. The only problem I've had with it was having to adjust the plate tension when it was slipping. Having the Paragon rebuilt would probably be a smart thing to do while out of the boat. However after just this morning talking with a very knowledgeable gentleman from Federal Marine Transmissions, if the transmission required anything more than clutch plates, it would be almost impossible to rebuild due to lack of parts availability. If I am going down the road of repowering, I believe switching to the velvet drive makes sense. I will contact Yacht Equipment, but also if you have any other company names in Kemah or the Houston/Galveston area that you can suggest as good alternates I would appreciate that. Always good to have more than one source.
As you have the SAOD transmission, I suggest that you add a new 1:1 Velvet Drive to the order. The SAOD is the old mechanical box and parts for these have almost completely dried up. You will have much better reliability with a new transmission.
We have also dealt with South Texas yacht Services who are also on Marina Bay Drive in Kemah. As Yacht equipment Services are are actually dealers for us, I will always note them first.
