My Osprey XR20 Story

[Paul E]

As some of you are aware, I got myself an XR20 last Autumn for a bargain basement price, as the previous owners were told that the engine ('99 200hp Mariner) was a write-off due to water repeatedly getting in the fuel, and ruining the main bearings. I bought it with a view that worst case scenario she'd need a new engine, and it was still cheap!

We were sceptical of that diagnosis from the start, as the reed block has never been taken off and everything else seemed to be in far too good condition there to be terminal damage. After sitting on the trailer at my gf's brother's farm for a few months we made a start trying to establish what the problem was. One of my best mates is a marine engineer, who has just gone off to work on mega-yachts in Moncaco (lucky git!) and he made it his mission to get her up and running before he left. First things first we took the plugs out and turned it over using with a good strong battery, she span up a treat with no sign of bearing damage (it had been sat for 18 months in a field!).

Plugs back in and a few basic checks (compression and oil system), and she spluttered into life in a tank. Not healthy but running nonetheless. Carbs were taken off, stripped and rebuilt along with the fuel pump. It ran better, but still lumpy. New spark plugs arrived so they were changed out, and all of the terminals on the coilpacks were cleaned and greased. Result!! An engine that starts on the button, idles beautifully and screams up to the limiter with no prop in the tank!

We finally had a break in the weather yesterday and a friendly tide, so we launched her with a 20l plastic fuel tank and went for a spin, and it performed faultlessly (apart from running out of fuel 100yds from the marina entrance, but a mate was out with us in his RIB in case of breakdowns so no drama!).

just over 40 knots in quite a healthy chop, at around 5,100rpm. The motor is a 25" leg right up on a 22" transom, so the 23" Yamaha M series prop is far too low in the water. At some point she's had a full length 75 gallon (!) under-deck fuel tank built in, and there's still a lot of fuel sloshing around under there which didn't help the handling I'm sure. The balance is all wrong and the layout is terrible but it was a bone dry ride, if a little bouncy!

She's now back in the yard, waiting for a re-fit...

The motor will be treated to a 20" leg (Merc offshore if I can find one) and a gearbox with low water pickups. I have access to a huge selection of props for testing, I'm aiming for around 60 knots in a flat sea, which I think is achievable if we can get the engine height, prop and balance sorted.

The floor is going to be cut up, and the fuel tank returned to a reasonable size (I was thinking around 150 litres), with baffles and fitted in a position that helps the weight distribution. We're also going to fit a ballast tank under the floor in the bow, that will be fillable and drainable via lever on the console and a pickup on the transom. A new console will be made (my dad has an existing mould that we'll modify) and the whole boat will be made to look like new. Bargain of the century? Could be!

Watch this space and I'll update regularly with pics and a writeup of the rebuild!

Paul

[Paul E]

A terrible photo my mate took on his phone, I think we were all far too excited to get proper ones!

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Paul E

screams up to the limiter with no prop in the tank!

That's not a clever thing to do on any engine-let alone one that's been standing for a long time. If it'll hit the limiter without load it bears no relevance to if it's running right or not and is quite likely to frag your powerhead...

[Paul E]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

That's not a clever thing to do on any engine-let alone one that's been standing for a long time. If it'll hit the limiter without load it bears no relevance to if it's running right or not and is quite likely to frag your powerhead...

It was fully warmed up first, was getting plenty of oil and it wasn't like we held it there for a long time. It was the only way we could see how it was revving as the ignition doesn't advance using the fast idle lever. It's not like we just fired it up and slammed the throttle down

The sea trial yesterday was to see how it runs under load, and it runs gooood!

[PeterM]

Go with a bigger than 150l tank . I've only got 120 on mine with a 200. You will forever be wishing you have at least 250l so you dont spend the day worrying about running out........

[Paul E]

Originally Posted by PeterM

Go with a bigger than 150l tank . I've only got 120 on mine with a 200. You will forever be wishing you have at least 250l so you dont spend the day worrying about running out........

I'll work out what we have room for etc when the floor is up, 150 was just a rough idea. My mate has a 130l tank with a 150 and gets on ok, the 19' Boston Whaler I used last year has a 200 opti and around 300l tank, and I personally found that excessive, too much weight and we never felt the need to use more than half capacity really

[Fr@nky]

Hi Paul,

Finaly started??? Lazy C... LOL
Come on in with those pictures.
I'm very interested of what your setup will be.

Regarding the fuel tank, my xr20 udes to have 90 liters under the jockey seat and half sunk in deck.
I managed to put a 140 liter tank in it while repairing transom and deck.
I could go much bigger with a standard tank, then it had to be a custom one.
But with my setup bigger wasn't possible.

Good luck and all the fun with refitting

[Paul E]

Originally Posted by Fr@nky

Hi Paul,

Finaly started??? Lazy C... LOL
Come on in with those pictures.
I'm very interested of what your setup will be.

Regarding the fuel tank, my xr20 udes to have 90 liters under the jockey seat and half sunk in deck.
I managed to put a 140 liter tank in it while repairing transom and deck.
I could go much bigger with a standard tank, then it had to be a custom one.
But with my setup bigger wasn't possible.

Good luck and all the fun with refitting

It's called Lazy C for a reason

Trouble is I have a lot of other hobbies, all pretty expensive, which leaves me very short of time and cash! I've just been snowboarding too and injured my ribs pretty badly, but they're on the mend. Life is for living, you can't take your money with you when it all ends so why not enjoy it?

[Paul E]

Today was a very productive day!

We started off by draining the fuel tank... It was 95% fresh water! Over 400 litres came out, what a mission! We now think that the 'engineer' stuck a hosepipe in there and filled it up so that it would keep breaking down. We know for sure he had a scam going where he told people their engine's were written off and then sold them on, he scammed people out of thousands, luckily I've come up trumps He no longer works in the marine trade

After that was done we started to cut up the floor, starting by using a fine cutting disc and running around the edge where the deck met the upstands that hold the tubes. The fibreglass then peeled up, exposing the marine ply decking. That's now mostly up, the fuel tank is truly massive!





Tomorrow afternoon we'll get the rest of the floor up, then we can try and remove the tank

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Paul E

Today was a very productive day!

We started off by draining the fuel tank... It was 95% fresh water! Over 400 litres came out, what a mission! We now think that the 'engineer' stuck a hosepipe in there and filled it up so that it would keep breaking down. We know for sure he had a scam going where he told people their engine's were written off and then sold them on, he scammed people out of thousands, luckily I've come up trumps He no longer works in the marine trade

After that was done we started to cut up the floor, starting by using a fine cutting disc and running around the edge where the deck met the upstands that hold the tubes. The fibreglass then peeled up, exposing the marine ply decking. That's now mostly up, the fuel tank is truly massive!





Tomorrow afternoon we'll get the rest of the floor up, then we can try and remove the tank

Hi Paul
Are you going to be finished by May?
Its good to see a Rib out there amonst all the die hards.....

[willk]

400L tank, OMG! That's huge (it LOOKS huge). Maybe someone filled it for ballast reasons? It's a brute of a tank though - you'll be a massive potential fuel/air bomb if you fill the damn thing

[wiLlfish]

Originally Posted by willk

Maybe someone filled it for ballast reasons?

yor neerer de troof thann yew fink popps.

dem rx botes forl ova onn ther syde wen de tannk starrts too gett emputy

firrst thay tryed chamferin orl de V owt ov de bakk harf ov de ull an wen dat didunt werk thay stuk a fewel tannk owt ov a tugg inn itt. stil didunt werk. crapp bote.

orlrite forr de drysewt gaiylawd brigayd tho

wIlf

[Paul E]

Originally Posted by wiLlfish

yor neerer de troof thann yew fink popps.

dem rx botes forl ova onn ther syde wen de tannk starrts too gett emputy

firrst thay tryed chamferin orl de V owt ov de bakk harf ov de ull an wen dat didunt werk thay stuk a fewel tannk owt ov a tugg inn itt. stil didunt werk. crapp bote.

orlrite forr de drysewt gaiylawd brigayd tho

wIlf

it must take you ages to type like that! There'll be no drysuits anywhere near it when it's done haha

the fuel tank was put in for a guy from Sark, used to go to England and back on one tank so he didn't have to pay extortionate uk petrol prices, typical mental Sarkee!

[Paul E]

Originally Posted by Tony

Hi Paul
Are you going to be finished by May?
Its good to see a Rib out there amonst all the die hards.....

We're aiming to have it ready for May yeah, maybe still on the long leg though. 5 weeks to do a new fuel tank, deck, console and seating is plenty of time, just need to make sure my dad doesn't slack!

[Fr@nky]

That is a huge tank paul.
Did they remove the stringers in the length of the boat to fit it in?

[Paul E]

I don't think so, i'll find out tomorrow when I go up with a few mates to lift it out... It's bloody heavy even empty! I've still got knackered ribs and my dad's recovering from a torn muscle in his arm so we couldn't do it, it's not worth damaging the tubes lifting it over. More pics tomorrow when it's out!

[Paul E]

The tank is out... after a few quick measurements and calculations it's around 420 litres!! Full up that would be the equivalent of carrying around 2 extra 200hp motors under the deck, no wonder the balance was a bit off!

Fr@nky it doesn't look like there were any stringers to remove in the first place. I think you may have them because they needed somewhere to mount the inboard motor.

There is a fair bit that had to be cut out to fit the tank though, and the workmanship doesn't look great. Not unsafe, just untidy. I'll be cleaning out the bilge tomorrow so we can start working out what we're going to do about a new fuel tank, and where we're going to fit it. It will be as low as possible and positioned in the best place for weight distribution. My dad has 40+ years of experience with stuff like this so I'll let him work it all out, and just do the donkey work and pay the bills

Unfortunately a bow tank looks to be out of the question, as there's some pretty elaborate mouldings up there that incorporate a bulkhead just aft of the hard nose, that we don't really want to start cutting up... Some nice trim tabs will be the next best thing though if the bow is too light in a head sea.

Can't wait to start cracking on! Shouldn't take long to sort a new tank and rebuild the deck, then the fun bit begins making a decent console

[BLACKSTORM]

Originally Posted by Paul E

The tank is out... after a few quick measurements and calculations it's around 420 litres!! Full up that would be the equivalent of carrying around 2 extra 200hp motors under the deck, no wonder the balance was a bit off!

Fr@nky it doesn't look like there were any stringers to remove in the first place. I think you may have them because they needed somewhere to mount the inboard motor.

There is a fair bit that had to be cut out to fit the tank though, and the workmanship doesn't look great. Not unsafe, just untidy. I'll be cleaning out the bilge tomorrow so we can start working out what we're going to do about a new fuel tank, and where we're going to fit it. It will be as low as possible and positioned in the best place for weight distribution. My dad has 40+ years of experience with stuff like this so I'll let him work it all out, and just do the donkey work and pay the bills

Unfortunately a bow tank looks to be out of the question, as there's some pretty elaborate mouldings up there that incorporate a bulkhead just aft of the hard nose, that we don't really want to start cutting up... Some nice trim tabs will be the next best thing though if the bow is too light in a head sea.

Can't wait to start cracking on! Shouldn't take long to sort a new tank and rebuild the deck, then the fun bit begins making a decent console

My god thats a big fuel tank

[Fr@nky]

HI Paul.

I think that the stringers in my xr20 are original, the inboard had his own place where it was mounted on.
I''m even not sure if the inboard engine was original.
I've attached a photo where you can see the stringers.
And one of the transom knees
I don't know if you have to reinforce your hull, if so, these could be of some use.