Steve, I read with marvel at the thought that you put into your systems. I also spend far too much time thinking about systems and I know of nobody in the industry that has it to your level. I’m just surprised about one thing…engine cooling. You go to great lengths to cool your AC and
refrig. using the “internal keel coolers” in order to eliminate all of the saltwater usually associated with it, but what about the engine? Why not
keel cool that? I have always felt that the weak point of these engines is
the belt driven rubber impeller pump and all of the intakes, strainers etc.
associated with it. I know that you are going to say that it adds heat to
the engine room, but my Nordhavn 40 was really quite cool with a keel
cooled dry exhaust engine. With an aluminum boat, you could even cool
through the skin.

An even better solution comes from the late Phil Bolger. He once drew a
unique boat that used an oil/air cooled Deutz engine. If you are not
familiar with it, these engines don’t have antifreeze as their coolant.
They curculate their lubricating oil and air cool it in order to cool the
engine. To me, it would be the ultimate…get rid of all of the usual
things associated with heat exchanger cooling and even eliminate the
complexity of a keel cooler….heck, they even eliminate an entire
fluid…antifreeze. Are you familiar with these?

One other unique engine that could be nice for the new 64 is these Steyr
engines that have an integrally mounted electic motor/generator. During
normal operation that generator could supply all of your DC needs without
needing an additional belt to drive it. In an emergency, it could be
driven as an electric “get home” motor powered off of the generator. I
think this could be a nice solution for a single engine boat.

Allan Salzman