We had a real treat today – Lunch with weather guru Bob McDavitt. Here’s been doing weather routing for us for about four years now and has helped us avoid some serious discomfort. His weather routing for us as been spot-on.
In all this time of emails back and forth, we’d never had the opportunity to meet him in person. We heard he’d be in our area and invited him to lunch. We promised each other we wouldn’t spend the whole time picking his brain for weather information but he’s so crammed full of knowledge, some couldn’t help but leak out!
Having met him in person now, we can say that his extreme talent is certinely rivaled by his good nature! Thanks Bob for all your help! -Rich and Cyndi
A while back we installed new engine mounts. Since replacement Yanmar mounts were so expensive, we went with R&D mounts sold by PYI. I’m thinking this was a mistake, but not totally. Here, watch this…
The Pros:
Very smooth at cruising RPM. Less $$$.
The Cons:
Very rough at idle! Maybe so rough that I’ll have to go back to Yanmar mounts soon.
A difficult installation with modifications to the engine brackets required. This is not a straight bolt in proposition, even with the mount R&D makes with the shim that is supposed to be a bolt-in replacement for the Yanmar mounts.
I emailed back and forth with PYI about this issue. Here’s how it was resolved (as far as they’re concerned)…
R&D asked if you have the tick over too slow? They also made a comment that the 3 cylinder engine is inherently out of balance. I know the Yanmar mounts are softer and at low rpms may absorb the rattle better. R&D control the engine much better when thrust is applied, but may be too stiff for the rattle at low rpms. We have used these 800-037 before on 3 cylinder Yanmars would good success, that is why R&D is asking about the tick over.
By “tick over,” I’ve come to believe they mean the idle speed. It’s exactly at Yanmar’s specification as verified by a laser tachometer. I don’t get it… “we’ve used them before on 3 cylinder Yanmars with good success” and “may be too stiff for the rattle at low RPMs.
This is by no means a complaint about PYI. They are a very impressive company with incredible customer service. They have done amazing things for us in servicing our MaxProp. They just sell the R&D mounts and I’m not sure R&D understands the purpose of customer service.
At any rate, I would say avoid these if you have a Yanmar 3YM30 (or maybe any three cylinder diesel). Overall, they get a boo from us. -Rich
Update: February 6, 2017
I received this email…
This is Bruce from s/v Migration. I was looking for Yanmar engine mount information and ended up on your site. Wanted to let you know that we had the EXACT same experience with the R&D mounts. Installed them and they ran great at higher RPM but were horrible at idle. You sure realize quickly how much time you spend at idle with those mounts! We finally pulled them out and put our old Yanmar mounts back in. I was online today to find some new Yanmar mounts which is why I was googling.
We also had the same issue with PYI (who usually provide fantastic customer support). They told us to check the idle. Also said to switch the two different types of mounts (we have a 4JH2-TE) from front to back instead of side to side. But we weren’t going to do that because that’s not how Yanmar mounts work.
Further update:
On Legacy, we’ve raised our engine idle to just over 1000 RPM and it helps. I don’t think shifting at higher RPMs is very good for the gearbox though.
After just a little over a year of use, the mounts have gotten soft enough that there is more lateral engine movement and this creates a pretty bad engine alignment issue when motorsailing.
I will definitely put Yanmar mounts back on the engine. -Rich
Update: March 11, 2018
Well, we did it… we bought new Yanmar mounts and installed them. We threw the R&D mounts in the trash. We haven’t been out for a ride yet, but in the berth, the engine is so much smoother and quieter!
Update: September 9, 2018
We have 1,500 miles on the new Yanmar mounts now in lots conditions, including motor-sailing in rough conditions. They’re great. The hold the engine in place even when heeled over and do an excellent job of dampening the vibrations. It feels like a new engine. I wish I’d never heard of R&D mounts!
This time of year, the common greeting when running across any cruiser you know is, “What the heck are you still doing here?” We’ve gotten this question a lot, mostly from local business owners shocked to see us arrive after the final big group of cruisers departed.
The answer: We just haven’t had any weather windows we can live with. This year’s had terrible weather for crossing to the tropics, and while people have managed to go, they’ve bucked it up and put up with conditions we’d rather avoid. It all comes down to the choice: stay in New Zealand and keep waiting, or just go and put up with a fair amount of discomfort! After all, it’s only for a few days and then you’re in the tropics. In the end, the vast majority of cruisers will put up with the discomfort because the alternative, remaining in New Zealand into the winter season, is not an acceptable option.
As somewhat experienced cruisers, we know we can’t avoid some discomfort on passages. It tends to come along at some point and it’s always worse than predicted. We get through it because we have no choice in the matter, and then we start on the forgetting process with big rum drinks on arrival. But that’s starting with a good window. We would not want to experience a bad window gone worse than predicted.
On top of that, we’re really enjoying it here; so we don’t have much incentive to go. Either this is a mild winter, or Northland winters are much nicer than we’ve heard. We get lots of rain, but we get just as much sun. The temperatures are cool enough that we’ve traded our shorts for jeans, but I wouldn’t call it cold. We always bring a jacket or sweater, but we don’t always wear them. We have friends here, favorite eateries (muy importante), and there are even still a few cruisers waiting to make the jump north so we don’t feel completely out of sync. We’ve rented a car and are using this time to finish up some boat projects and go on a few outings to places we’ve missed on previous visits.
In short, we’re not just making the best of things; we’re quite happy and content here. We look every day at the coming weather and keep on eye on potential windows, but when they fall apart we aren’t disappointed. (In fact, a couple of times we’ve been relieved as we’ve had some boat projects to finish and didn’t feel ready to go.) So we’ll continue to wait and watch, but so far we’re pretty content staying put. Meanwhile, we’re also staying flexible, and some of our plans may change as our time in the tropics gets shorter (such as maybe skipping New Caledonia). We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
For now, I’m going to get back to a goal I’d love to complete before we head north: writing about our time in the Marlborough Sounds. When I’m done, we’ll create an information section in our blog for other cruisers. Meanwhile, here’s a gallery of photos from some of the stuff we’ve been doing, including a trek to Charlie’s Rock (a popular swimming hole and waterfall just north of Kerikeri), and the remarkably beautiful drive out to Whangarei Heads. And food. Always food.–Cyndi (Below, a hodgepodge of stuff we’ve been doing. Click to enlarge and scroll.)
We’re sitting in the marina in Opua, waiting for weather to sail to New Caledonia (or really, anywhere tropical at this point!). Here’s a little animated GIF showing what can expect for the next twelve days or so. Not pretty. (Hint: bright colors are bad!)
Oh well. It’s not like we aren’t enjoying ourselves. We still love it here! -Rich
