Easy enough to have some gasket material,sissors and a couple of wad punches on stand by.

might stock up on sail drive anodes

Looking at the Bukh homepage in Denmark there are many varieties of engine listed, all are currently available with no mention anywhere of downsizing or having a fire sale. Now I don't know about you but to my way of thinking a company does not invest millions of dollars into research and development and then throw it all away to concentrate on only one model.
Sounds to me like Bukh Australia are either telling porkies or they are in financial strife.

The internet has changed everything

yes I wonder why you buy from Bukh AU when its a lot more sensible to just get the parts from the UK

my engine mount price shock of $550 was the most recent wakeup call that getting stuff overseas makes some sense.

LooseChange said..

Looking at the Bukh homepage in Denmark there are many varieties of engine listed, all are currently available with no mention anywhere of downsizing or having a fire sale. Now I don't know about you but to my way of thinking a company does not invest millions of dollars into research and development and then throw it all away to concentrate on only one model.
Sounds to me like Bukh Australia are either telling porkies or they are in financial strife.

Admittedly the guy (from Bukh Aus) was a bit short with me at first but he took the info I gave him onboard and got back to me less than an hour later. That is good service. In the second conversation he did relate that the engine fitted was obsolete and more particularly the gear box and that it was probably of less a horse power than the particular yacht should have.

So the question is:- Do you throw money at obsolete technology or invest in newer technology that delivers twice the horsepower for the same weight.

I think the answer is fairly obvious but one does need to forget about "hand starting engines". Technology has filled the gap.

With wind, solar and charging controller systems available today, flat batteries are a thing of the past.

Please name me a make and model of diesel yacht engine that can be hand started on a yacht.

I think there would be physical limitations on what can and what can't be hand started. The smaller engines probably yes but then as the engine becomes physically bigger that becomes a large mass to try and get moving, so probably no.

I had an 8 hp Yanmar on an old timber H28. You could use the de-crompressor, hand crank to get the huge flywheel spinning, then drop in the compression . Usually started first go. Lovely thud thud thud sound.

have a newish Bukh 10HP, like the idea of being able to start it manually start it, and thats all we did for a short while when we first got he boat and electrics sorted out.
It is however difficult o start it by yourself without someone actuating the decompression level. I am fairly stout and nearly stuffed my shoulder turning it over.
Did start after one compression stroke though.

As far as I know, the proprietors at Bukh Australia are the Townsend brothers. I often speak to them at the Sydney boat show.

But I have heard before that some people have been unhappy dealing with them - obviously not everybody.

But I just don't get it - if you're selling engines to a fairly small market of customers (like yacht owners in Australia), why would you risk alienating your customers? What is in it for your business to alienate even one customer? Holding stock can be expensive, so even if you have high prices, why not be nice and helpful and supportive of your customers. Won't it be good for your business? I don't get these guys.

You should consider yourself lucky then DrRog to have such a special relationship that most of us Bukh owners have not experienced with the Bukh boys.

Crazy buggars, i cant crank my dv20, broken decompression. Best marine engine. As reliable as a lister.. just gotta know what to do with it. Anytime i wanna have my truck petrol engine hydrofoil conversion buut... bukhs gunna get me there on the smell of an oily rag.

We hear your bad experiences and pain, but I do want to say that I have met (in person) at least two yacht owners who were satisfied with work donw by the Townsends in Taren Point (Bukh Australia). And we have Dr Rog's experience here on the forum, so its not 100% bad.

Thing is, the brothers own the dealership and they probably use helper staff to do smaller service jobs (like oil changes etc.). Just like in the car mechanics industry, you're sometimes going to be charged for parts that weren't replaced and there's going to be suspicions about whether you paid too much or for things that weren't necessary.

I once had a Volvo Penta serviced by a large engine service group (multiple branches) at the RPA yard; I paid through the nose, more than agreed beforehand, and when I got the boat back I found they had actually re-installed the coarse diesel filter with fuel flow the wrong way round. I assumed it was just one of their flunkies showing his experience.

I do not believe that the Bukh proprietors would set out to defraud a customer by deciding, for example, to not actually change the oil - as far as business income goes, the gains would be peanuts; just not worth it. I think it more likely to be oversight or poor staff.

Experience reports are fine, but may I ask nicely that we don't condemn Glenn and Graham totally, especially since they cannot defend themselves here.

And let's face it, they are probably the only Bukh specialist mechanics in Australia, and the day may come that some of our Bukh owners here may have to ask those guys for help with a tough mechanical problem that cannot be solved via email to NZ or the UK.

One would just hope that their shop could adopt a more welcoming and supportive attitude towards all their Bukh owner customers, given that their prices are generally on the high side.


And since they are also the importer of Beta marine engines to Australia - anyone here had a BETA engine installed or serviced by the brothers?