For that sort of hooch can you consider different power?? As you say
you didn't really use the power the turboed perkins had anyway & these
days Cummins etc have some lovely units at what seem like good prices.

My impression is that a new Cummins would run just under twice what it will
likely cost to install another (reman) Perkins.

One consideration is a certain blasphemy being entertained by the Mrs. She toys
more frequently these days with selling our perfectly perfect boat and
replacing it with another that would have a larger berth, a different galley
config, etc etc etc. I guess it seems natural that she has developed a list of
perceived deficiencies after a decade or so with this boat......the scary thing
is that we've been together a *lot* longer than that..(I mean, our oldest kid
is 30!)...and I wonder what sort of "list" she's developed concerning me? :-)

If she makes good on her threat to force the new (or newer) boat issue in the
next few years I'll get no more for the boat with a 4-5 year old Cummins in it
than with a
Perkins with 800 hours on the rebuild.

The newly reconfigured 40-foot Willard pilothouse could be a temptation, but
there are only two of those in existence. And there is a small problem with the
associated price tag. Wowzers- at least for me.

Besides, if anything goes wrong with one of these new diesels, it's much harder
to diagnose or repair. My old Perkins is easy to understand. I can look at
every part and piece on the exterior of that engine and know what it is, how it
works, and how to take care of it. It will even run with a stone dead battery-
like to see a new Cummins duplicate that. :-)