I am considering purchasing an older Novurania MX 650 DLX with an inboard Yanmar (240 hp) and a Hamilton Jet Drive. Has anyone out there had any experience with this specific model, or with anything similar. All of my former RIBS were outboard powered so I'm slightly nervous about the inboard diesel and jet drive. Any input would be appreciated.
I'd make sure you get a good long sea trial as inboard jets are somewhat of an aquire taste & tend to lag a little in prefomance compared to a propeller driven boat of similar hp
Also the yanmar engines suffer from corrosion in the damp confines of a rib engine bay pay close attention to exhaust elbows & turbo housing for corrosion
Also check heat exchangers are clean inside as they fur up leading to overheating at high rpm same goes for the intercooler
I strip the coolers off my 6lp's every 2 - 3 years to give them a good clean out & reseal which is maybe a bit ott but at over 2K each I think there worth looking after
The 4lh yanmar is pretty bulletproof but it's biggest enemy seems to be corrosion & neglect
A good engineers report might be a good thing if you have any doubts
Thanks for your advice. I did a long sea trail of the Novurania MX 650 DLX and see what you mean about Jet Drives being a bit of an acquired taste. The boat was VERY hard to keep going in a straight line at low speeds. What surprised me a bit was its relatively low top speed of 26 knots at wide open throttle. The boat had the 4LH STE which I think has 230 hp. Does that seem right to you? Top speed aside, she did handle a rough sea quite well.
Hi I don't know the particular boat but I'm not surprised at the performance as jets do tend to lag well behind there propeller driven counterparts in performance
I guess it depends what you want & how you intend to use it jets are usually more reliable than sterndrive as a lot less to go wrong & obviously safer for people in the water
There are pros & cons of both systems it's realy up to the individual to decide which suits there needs
