Costoldi jets

Philthy · 05 July 2009, 17:02

I have been looking about lately at purchasing a diesel rib and have just seen one with a ford sabre 345 diesel running a costoldi jet, possibly built around 1999 but not sure yet. Has anybody any comments/views on either of these that can help me decide to go any further with it.
Thanks

Rogue Wave · 05 July 2009, 17:21

Does your Castoldi's come with integrated gearbox's and can you post a pic of the control sticks/switches

Philthy · 05 July 2009, 18:56

Hi, i'm not sure about any of the specifics at the moment. I've asked for some more info and picture so as soon as i get them i will let you know. Are there any other things i should take note of for more info?

Rogue Wave · 05 July 2009, 21:35

I mostly know hamilton jets.

So what I say aint gospel............Castoldi jets have a more efficient impellor thrust system than other jets and you get a bit more speed from them. I sem to remember they have a funny control system, which is fabulous to use, but can be unreliable. It's kinda like a zoom lens operation which controls the throttle and bucket the bucket control being electrohydraulic as oppposed to mechhydraulic. .

I've come across a few older ones which have had a normal throttle and a switch to operate the bucket cos the expensive Castoldi Control

Having an internal gearbox makes things kiba easy for maintenece as it uses the same lube as the jet I believe.

Thats about all I know of them essentailly they are good drives with an an advanced control systems

Philthy · 07 July 2009, 17:46

Hi these are the photo's i have received of the inner drive and controls, the owner has quoted me a fuel consumption of around 8-10 gph at 30knots and 12-14 gph at about 35-40 knots, does this sound excessive for and old engine like this possibly 1990?
Does anybody know also if the humber offshore hulls have changed much since the early 90's, sorry to be a pain asking loads of questions, just trying to work out if it is viable complete or to re-engine.
Thanks

Rogue Wave · 07 July 2009, 18:35

Alot of people shove Iveco's in nowadays which may have some shared heritage with th Sabre.

I don't think the fuel readings (if true) are excesasive my 450 CAT burns 70lph
and it's new but it is shifting 3 tons at 42 knots cruising it's around 40lph at 30Knots. The engine is about 15% more fuekl efficient than it's forebear but that saving is insignificant against the cost of the new engine.

The only way to find out the consumption is to brim the boat beforee you trial it take it out hammer it for a half hour or more then refill calculate your consumption from that.

Those Jet controls are normal cable operated hyddraulic and I'm not seeing a gearbox control so should be much more reliable. depending on how many hours the jet has done you'll be looking at an overhaul for best performance, I'd check the price of the sleeves and seals also the wear ring might need replacing

Dunc · 07 July 2009, 19:48

We have a castoldi 06 jet and a Yanmar 440hp in our Pacific 26. Fuel consumption when running trips is 35 litres per hour that includes a mixture of accelerating, idling, cruising at 20knts-25knts and flat out bits. When we're tripping the boat and passengers are probably up around 3.5-4 tonnes. We've been running this for the last 3 years and generally it's proved reliable. Before we owned her she was owned by the Met and I'd imagine they didn't go softly. Once we'd sorted out a few problems left over from the previous owners everything has run really well. We have electrohydraulic controls and Rogue Wave is right we've fitted buttons and bypassed castoldi's flash computer control system and I'm inclined to switch over to the hydromechanical system. The built in gearbox operates with a dog clutch, which means you have to stop the engine to go in and out of gear although in an emergency you could whip it out of gear without causing damage. In the uk parts all come through lancing marine who are very helpful but also pricey. Hope this is helpful to you.

Other thing to be aware of is weight. Castoldi's although having the reputation of better top end performance are not great at getting on the plain if too heavily laden. If you go on the castoldi jet website you'll see the 06 is rated to 3.7 tonnes for planing boats. Looking at the boat your investigating she's probbaly atleast 2.5 tonnes not including fuel.

Cookee · 08 July 2009, 08:50

We have a Mercruiser 120hp jet - it's the Doen water jet they use and the motor is the Isuzu 1.7 litre, the same as they put in the Astra I believe!, not sure if that helps you at all, but if you have any questions ask away! (It's our demonstrator and is for sale by the way).