July 16, 2003
YEAR OF THE BOAT

Sometime last year we declared 2003 to be the "Year of the Boat" and did not make any cruising plans other than for local area forays. We knew we would have some big projects in front of us on our return from our travels to the States. Foremost on that agenda was changing the engine. Our Volvo MD-3B was now 27 years old (new at launch of SUNFLOWER) and had accumulated more than 14,000 hours. You may recall that some of our SetSail articles in the past have included reports of changing the head gaskets on the engine--yet again. So the handwriting was on the wall.

	The sink counter and cabinet perched on top of the starboard settee. You can see some of the total confusion the reigned during the change over.

Actually, we have been wanting to change engines for quite some time. I mean like, years. And it always fell back to the same old thing: we simply hadn't enough room to fit any of the new engine configurations. Our Volvo is a narrow, tall engine. It lives under the sink counter in the galley. Newer engines are short and wide. To get anything else into that space, we would either have to drastically reduce horse power, and our present 36 HP is about minimum already, or drastically rebuild the galley in the boat. Not an option, says I. We knew that the next generation of Volvo engines, the MD-17C, had the same footprint as our old engine, and had a better designed water passage system through the block. The engine is salt water cooled, so this was a big consideration. All our spare parts would work, and Al had umpteen years of experience with our old Volvo. Definitely making it a "Devil" we knew.

The problem was where to find one of these MD-17C's. We had been working on this for almost 2 years! Our Norwegian cruising friends contacted likely sources in Norway and Sweden--nothing. Likewise Swedish cruising friends who were on a working sabbatical there in Scandinavia. We asked every friend who either had a Volvo or was connected to the marine industry in some way to keep their eyes open. We used the postal, or E-mail addresses, to contact all sorts of engine companies we found advertised in sailing magazines. Even searched E-Bay! Nothing. But several replies indicated that the MD-17C's were such good engines that it was hard to keep them in stock. So at least we felt we were on the right track.

	#The new Volvo! It is being lowered by the crane that is on top of the travel lift at the marina.

We continued our search while we were traveling in the States last year. Our perseverance, and a good bit of luck, paid off. We contacted a firm in Washington state who had a MD-17C and would rebuild it for us. Hooray! Since we had transportation, a flexible schedule and lots of good friends on our "Trap Line" in Washington, we drove up to have a look at the engine, check the overall condition, make sure it would run, have the correct mounts and stuff like that. We also had to arrange for the shipment of the engine to us in Langkawi, Malaysia. Talk about EPIC journeys--I could write a book! Suffice it to say--crate on truck to LA, ship to Penang, bonded truck to Kuala Kedah, tug and barge to Langkawi, truck to local ferry terminal, crane to fishing boat, fishing boat to Rebak Marina, travel lift crane to work shed. OURS!!

Well you might know that it arrived the day before the Langkawi International Regatta was to begin. There was nothing we could do until the races were over, or until we completed some other commitments already made, and attended to a series of dental appointments in Penang. Then finally, finally, we moved SUNFLOWER to Rebak Marina and settled in to tackle the project of the year--changing the engine.