Capt. JG wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message
...

Example: On my previous boat, I would generally power only within a few
hundred yards of the slip, both leaving and returning. But the engine, an
elderly Westerbeke, needed about 5 minutes before it could be put in gear
without stalling. This meant that anytime time I came back from a long
sail with a cold engine, I had to sail through a busy harbor with an
engine running that was not available for use.

I'm wondering if there was something wrong with it? Diesels don't really
need much of a warm up. They like being under load and warm up when under
load. I don't warm up my Westerbeke (13). If I'm going to leave the slip, I
start, put it in reverse after about 30 seconds, perhaps a minute, and
leave. It's never stalled yet.


All I can say is that once warmed up, it ran fine. But if I went into
gear too soon, it would cough and die. It was, IIRC, a "30" based on a
Mitsubishi block. My newer Yanmar 2GM20F's are much better, starting
almost instantly, and ready to go in less than a minute (but I still
wait 5 minutes, out of habit). I've also known Atomic 4's that had to
warm up, but if you knew the engine well you could compensate with the
choke.