Yanmar has therefore designed a 50 hp turbo diesel outboard motor. The first tests were carried out in Australia aboard a 52-foot catamaran, the latest SV X-IT built. A shape was cut out in each inner step of the hulls in order to be able to tiltthe outboards, which are protected at the front by a separate fairing. Note that the location of these engines is as far forward as possible. During the first tests, the catamaran reached 19 knots under sail - so it doesn’t seem to be hampered in any way by the new installation. As for the engines, the testers recorded a speed of 10 knots and very little noise or vibration. The capacity of this diesel outboard is 804 cc, giving it more torque than a 70 hp four-stroke gasoline outboard, a full-throttle fuel consumption limited to 12 l/h (3.17 US gal/h) and an expected life of over 10,000 hours.
