To date, Eleanor Tarr had a gasoline axillary engine that had been removed in the summer of 2013. I have been (and still am) keeping my eye on the electric yacht motor scene, but until that seems a little more feasible for a cruising yacht i have been saving my pennies for a diesel engine 15-20 hp.

A new engine was going to set us back close to ten thousand bucks, and that had been my plan until i heard rumour of an older, rebuilt volvo diesel. To be honest ten thousand bucks is not the sort of money i have to spend, particularly on an engine, that same money could/would/will go so much farther if spent on rigging, sails etc.

So it so happened that mid august i heard of a 2 cylinder volvo diesel for sale, a couple of hours away. So i took off with my trailer at 4:00 am and headed down to the shore. What i found was a late 60’s or early 70’s volvo MD2, 17 hp, rebuilt and never reused, hand cranked with decompression levers for a song of a price. So home we drove together, out and onto a cart in the shop to have a starter added and to be given a thorough going over.