1978 Hatteras 60C Major Refit

[Cricket]

Go with the CAT C18's, changing over to modern 4 stroke diesels will be like having a new boat. Wouldn't worry about any weight differences, not going to be that much less in the grand scheme.

[krush]

Why not just buy a newer and better Hatt for the price this refit would cost? It will have the cats already installed.

[SKYCHENEY]

Why not just buy a newer and better Hatt for the price this refit would cost? It will have the cats already installed.

Not the same hull.

[jim rosenthal]

I would have to look, but I think they are least 5000 each and maybe more than that.

Personally I would fix up the older 60, I think they are great boats, but everyone has their preference. I like the older Hatteras styling a lot more, and I think they are in general better bullt.

[jonaly179]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Looks like the C18s will get the win paired with ZF transmissions. I will have to do air study to see if there is enough airflow into the engine room space. I know the air gets sucked from the cockpit but wondering if I'll need to add hull side ventilation. We plan on moving pretty much everything that was in the utility room and moving it into the engine room and making the utility room a 4th stateroom plus storage. Our also big project is to construct a mezzanine in the cockpit. Question though, is the holding tank under the center walkway in the engine room? Crawling around the boat yesterday and I never realized how much dead space there truly is as we are in the beginning stages of design. And a no brainer we will be converting to 24/12 volts. The boat currently is an electrical nightmare.

[Cricket]

Huge project, been down this road a few times with our old 50c.
Couple of suggestions, plan plan plan, re plan.
Especially how projects affect other projects.
The 2 projects ending up with the biggest benefit have been the CATs and the mezzanine.
Of course those projects required other important projects, like converting to 24volts because of the CATs.

Good luck with everything, don't forget we like LOTS of pictures and updates.
And, don't be afraid to ask questions or bounce ideas, tons of knowledge on the board.

[jim rosenthal]

I think the Caterpillar people should be able to tell you about air flow requirements for combustion and cooling, and howmany sq inches of intake area you need.

Second that on the photos, we will all be very interested to watch the progress of this refit.

[sixty]

The previous owner of my boat did a full retrofit back in the late 2000's. He was the owner of one of the biggest Caterpillar dealers in California and had a pair of brand new electronic Cats on a pallet (not sure what model) ready for installation during the retrofit. From what I was told, he consulted with a few naval architects as well as Hatteras and they all convinced him to stick with the Detroit's as the 60C's have a high center of gravity and changing the engines will drastically effect the handling. With all the incentives he would have had including a huge discount on the engines, tax breaks, warranty, cheap maintenance, etc., he still chose to stick with the Detroit's which says something.

I think the problem with the Cat's is that the C18's are too light and the Acert 32's are much heavier and bulkier than the Detroit's. My friend has cat 3214's in his 100' Broward and they are quite a bit bigger than my Detroit's so the 32's would be a tight fit in the engine room.

That said, I dream about having some big Cats in mine! From what I recall reading, guys with very high power Detroit's have had the hull in the 30kt range without keel walking and a very smooth ride.

You would have no problem getting air to the engines without adding side vents, there is tons of airflow thru the engine room. Once you get the engine installed you can always open the engine door to see if the engines are being deprived of air an add vents then.

The holding tank is perpendicular to the stringer under the bulkhead between the engine room and utility room. There is nothing located under the walkway between the engines.

Do you have access to the original drawings that came with the boat? you will find a lot of info in them. I still have all of mine so if you guys need something let me know. My hull is number 4 which should be close to yours.

[Cricket]

These are the actual published engine weights.
1979 DD 12v71TI @ 675hp is 5,200 lbs
2018 CAT C18 1015hp is 4,000 lbs.

So, max difference weight total of only 2,400 lbs less with CATs.
My guess is the actual difference will be even less with having to use a larger/heavier marine gear due to the added horsepower over the DD.
So, enough with this the "boat will be unstable" with CAT C18 installed compared to with DD 12v71.
And, you will probably be able to get the engines lower in the boat with using an angled gear.
Just to prove the point, 2,400 lbs is the same weight as 345 gallons of diesel fuel or less than a quarter tank out of 1,550 gallon capacity.
So it's not going to make 1 bit of difference stability wise.

[sixty]

I agree, not a big difference and if it is a problem, nothing some lead ballast couldn't fix. I only repeated what I have heard with 60C's on multiple occasions from very different sources. From my experience the 60C/EB is much more tender than most boats on a beam sea drift so really benefits from low gravity weight. In researching, I have seen repowers are far less common in 60C/EB's than other models. That has to be for reason, especially considering the large number produced.

With c18's there will be tons of space in the engine room that could be utilized. I am still not sure I would want to lose my utility room though, it is very useful on my boat.

I'm voting with Dave and think Acert 32's re the way to go if repowering.

These are the actual published engine weights.
1979 DD 12v71TI @ 675hp is 5,200 lbs
2018 CAT C18 1015hp is 4,000 lbs.

So, max difference weight total of only 2,400 lbs less with CATs.
My guess is the actual difference will be even less with having to use a larger/heavier marine gear due to the added horsepower over the DD.
So, enough with this the "boat will be unstable" with CAT C18 installed compared to with DD 12v71.
And, you will probably be able to get the engines lower in the boat with using an angled gear.
Just to prove the point, 2,400 lbs is the same weight as 345 gallons of diesel fuel or less than a quarter tank out of 1,550 gallon capacity.
So it's not going to make 1 bit of difference stability wise.