Walk in engine room

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

fishpcb

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
117
Location
USA
Who makes a trawler under 50' with a walk in engine room?
I'm thinking about a changing boats, sometime between 42' and 52' and would love to have more room to work on the engines.
 
Great Harbour N-37 and N-47, late model Selene 36, Krogen 39 are "walk in". Full "stand up" head room is only first four feet in KK 39, Great Harbour N-47 is full standing, N-37 is maybe 5.5' or so, Selene is probably near 5'. Other custom one-off builds occasionally, older 44' DeFevers, Matthews and 43 & 44 Gulfstars are pretty good too. Maybe Nordhavn 43 & 47 but I haven't been in either. That's all I can think of under 50.
 
Last edited:
I've been searching for more head room in the ER also. The only boats with walk-in's that I have found were over 55' or way over my budget.
 
If you want more room to work on engines than a single engine. Easier access may be have more advantage.
:flowers:

I would have easy er access over walk around.
 
Last edited:
Great Harbour N-37 and N-47, late model Selene 36, Krogen 39 are "walk in". Full "stand up" head room is only first four feet in KK 39, Great Harbour N-47 is full standing, N-37 is maybe 5.5' or so, Selene is probably near 5'. Other custom one-off builds occasionally, older 44' DeFevers, Matthews and 43 & 44 Gulfstars are pretty good too. Maybe Nordhavn 43 & 47 but I haven't been in either. That's all I can think of under 50.

I will start looking.
Thanks
 
The wife said if we change boats, she wants a galley up one level floor plan. That will be hard to do and stay under 50'
 
A buddy has a Norland 48 right next to me that has a pretty much walk in engine room.

The Defever 49 has a very tall engine room as well if memory serves correctly.

Below a certain size a walk in engine room doesn't make much sense. The problem is that you either have to increase draft, or raise the main deck. The space has to come from somewhere.
 
Any DeFever over 44' is very good for ER space and height. Much better than a KK, Selene or Nordhavn of similar size. I was on a Nordhavn 50 yesterday and was noting the lesser maintenance access.

But, with good planning and long arms anything has been shown doable on these nice vessels.
 
Greetings,
Mr. fi. Cheoy Lee 46. Walk in ER AND galley up on one level with pilot house and saloon. Only problem with one of those is they're pretty rare/uncommon.
 
I love walk-in ER's too! That is if they are actually big enough for me to easily function inside of for at least 90% of what is required to be done on engine and proximity equipment.

One item [reason] I have not purchased boats because of is when the engine and other equipment is "stashed" inside a crawl space with some sort of rinky dink tiny door underneath a set of steps... or... otherwise located in some extremely difficult to access, out of the way location. I have not, do not and will not crawl on hands and knees around my engines to spend either minutes or hours maintaining or repairing them. - Period The End!

A 65 yrs., 6'1, carrying 245 lbs. of lifetime rompen/stompen weightlifter boy-toy meat... standing upright is extremely important to me regarding the engine compartment [EC] which includes its general equipment area. I feel that quick, easy access to things inside an EC or ER is important to the well being of passengers and the boat itself. IMO - At time of emergency easy access to engines, tanks and other equipment can surely become paramount importance!

That said... to stay in boat size I/we currently desire and that our lifestyle as well as cruising area defines [34' to 40'] - There simply taint no really useful "walk-in" ER's available. Soooo... to stay in our desired boat-size range, and simultaneously supply the need of standing head room in the area of engines, it is simply necessary to have a couple of very large hatches atop engines that open very long and wide.

Depending on the boat model and configuration these hatches can be in the cockpit [such as sedan sport fishers I've owned] or they can be in the salon sole [such as the photos shown here that are inside our twin screw, 34' tri cabin Tollycraft].

This feature of great big hatches, in boat too small for a roomy stand-up ER, opens up the comfort of nearly unlimited standing head room while also enabling much access to the engine and other equipment in close proximity. This hatch arrangement also gives access to deck or sole flat areas for tool layout and for working on parts at a similar height to a work bench. Much, much comfort and working room... I dig it!

If a person locates a boat they really like but that has only limited crawl-space access to the engines there is still hope! For a cost [let's just quess at two to three boat dollars - less if you do the build-out yourself :D] you could have big hatches installed over the engines. Instantly upon hatch completion you have availability of a wide open engine compartment with all the features I mentioned above.

Note of Caution: Not all boats' deck or sole arrangement is conducive to actually constructing big hatches and making things work out for continually enjoyable access to engine. In other words... take full account of how and where the hatches could be placed before purchasing the boat and then learning that big "engine compartment" hatches cannot be correctly put into place... that would be a bummer!

Happy EC/ER Access Daze! - Art :speed boat:
 

Attachments

  • 1-3-15 Engines.JPG
    1-3-15 Engines.JPG
    144.7 KB · Views: 181
  • 1-3-15 Gen Set.JPG
    1-3-15 Gen Set.JPG
    130.2 KB · Views: 203
Our Symbol 41 doesn't have stand up engine room if the saloon floor is down.

BUT, the main saloon floor lifts out easily to make the engine room 'stand up-able'. It is pretty handy. Just move a bit of furniture and the teak/holly floor lifts up in 2' X 3' sections. There are 6 sections that lift out to pretty much open the entire engine room to get around the engines, gen-set and batteries. If need be, the supporting sections also can be removed for removing the engines or tanks. This only takes a handful of screws to be removed. I don't normally do this for day to day maintenance. In fact, I normally only remove two sections above the bilge to be able to stand up between the engines while doing most maintenance.

Although, the outside of the engines are still a hassle to get to, it is a lot easier to do this work with the floor off then to do work around them squeezing under the floor and next to the fuel tanks.
 
We have a squeeze thru on our 32 . First 2 ft is standup , then it's on the knees for decent access on each side of the engine .
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2957.jpg
    IMG_2957.jpg
    74.5 KB · Views: 158
  • IMG_2956.jpg
    IMG_2956.jpg
    115.5 KB · Views: 170
I've been in the Nordhavn 43 and the engine room was pretty sizable for a 43. I'd imagine their 47 is much roomier.
 
Our President 41 has hatches in the salon that remove for standing room. The supports lift out without any screws, etc. having said that it is really tight on the outboard sides of the engines and in the rear of the ER under the deck that does not remove. Would kill for a Defever 50 - 53 POC with the walkin ER. Not in my retirement budget.
 
There are Diesel Duck models in that length range that have stand up engine rooms.

Later,
Dan
 
Had a friend once stand in our engine room, the hair atop his 6' 4" frame just brushing the over head, look down at my 5' 6" height and said, "Dude, this head room is wasted on you..." We laughed! (He has a TransPac 50 with maybe 4' of headroom in the ER.)
 
Stand up engine room

Got one in most of it I can stand straight up. Wide beam and shallow hard chine makes for big volume. with great access to everything except port side of genset. That requires me to lay over it. As to Galley up or down this N has a real kitchen in the most stable part of the boat. Gad all this in 37' :) .ATTACH]65439[/ATTACH]

CA engine rm view of strb stern qtr .jpg

CA engine rm port side.jpg

CA engine rm forward strb .jpg

CA Galley ovens sink .jpg

CA galley stern corner fridge.jpg

CA n the Falls Anchorage reduced.JPG

CA strb side view.jpg
 

Attachments

  • CA Engine rm view of port side .jpg
    CA Engine rm view of port side .jpg
    111.5 KB · Views: 323
Any DeFever over 44' is very good for ER space and height. Much better than a KK, Selene or Nordhavn of similar size. I was on a Nordhavn 50 yesterday and was noting the lesser maintenance access.

But, with good planning and long arms anything has been shown doable on these nice vessels.

I don't believe the Defever pilothouse boats (49 and 52) have stand up engine rooms. Best bets are the 44, 49 cpmy and 50 cpmy. They all have plenty of engine room space.

Paul
 
Californians
 
JP - I'm pleased and amazed at the size in your boat's engine room.

Designer of that gets double - :thumb: :thumb:
 
I hate ya, Joe. I hate all N-series owners. I'm gonna hate ya till I have my own N-series one day.
 
My Cheoy Lee has a full headroom engine room. We can have 6-8 people with wine in there no problem!

You should look for their 50ft Tricabin model. They made 8 I believe .8 galls per mile 2x 120hp Lehman
 
At 35 feet, I settled for a "sit-down-on-the-battery box" access with unlimited headroom.

 
Joe Pica - we need a picture of you standing in there.
The truly amazing thing is even with his stand up engine room, is the LESS THAN 3 FEET DRAFT. Great design!
 
Back
Top Bottom