Yanmar Engines Promote Environmentally Friendly Racing

Posted on:22/06/2016

Yanmar engines powered Blastoff Racing to a record breaking run at the 45th Annual Coniston Powerboat Records Week.

The 38ft Fountain powerboat, owned by Dorian Griffith of Blastoff Racing, was originally designed to take two inboard Mercury racing 8.2 litre petrol engines which achieved a speed of around 100mph but needed 7 litres a mile of petrol to fuel it. With the continuous drive for economy and reliability and the quest to race responsibly conserving fuel and noise levels, Dorian decided to re-power the boat with twin Yanmar 6LY2A-STP 440 hp turbo diesel engines. Arneson surface drives and stainless steel surface piercing propellers were also fitted with the potential to deliver speeds in excess of 90mph in racing conditions.

Taking up the story Dorian comments, “Repowering with the Yanmar engines has helped to conserve fuel using only 2.5 litres per mile making it safer for racing and more environmentally friendly. The Yanmar engines fit perfectly due to their compact nature, and have more torque than their petrol predecessors allowing us to run larger diameter propellers.

Dorian continues, “We did the record run at Coniston to establish a Marathon C class record over the kilo run both ways and averaged 83.49 mph, peaking at 87 mph, which is only 13mph slower than in the previous petrol version. Over the winter after more tweaks we believe that 95 mph is possible making the boat very competitive for Marathon racing.”

“The Yanmar engines are perfect for offshore due to their power-to-weight and rugged reliability giving us peace of mind. Thank you Barrus for all your help,” Dorian concludes.

Blastoff Racing is hoping to take part in the Venture Cup Round Ireland Race in June this year.

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