Single Screw or Twins

[DKramer]

I am interested in buying an Albin 35TE and I like the simplicity of a single engine. What are the maintenance, fuel economy and other differences. I am not concerned with the "reliability and redundancy" as most commercial fishing boats 30-60 ft. are singles. I am more interested in cost issues. I like the idea of a keel protected single shaft and a bow thruster. Any thoughts?

[Yearwood]

The Albin 28/Yanmar is the first single screw boat I have owned. Over 15/16 years it has proved more reliable than the twin screw boats (all with gasoline engines). Maneuverability is equivalent with the bow thruster.

[socalmike]

Same as above. Love the single screw. No complaints so far.

[catalina_mike]

We love our 28 TE just be aware of the prop walk to Starboard in reverse. Our slip is a pain even with the thruster because of the walk. She sips fuel and last Saturday coming back after Whale watching hit 21 kts.. unbelievable for a single diesel.

[zinbaad]

31 albin,,,, I say twins , never regretted the small additional expense on fuel for the comfort of control, handling and security to get back to port

[Jeremyvmd]

I grew up on twin engine boats and love what you can do with handling with twins, but to be honest I've gotteb just as good with a single outboard as I ever was with twins. And I feel that with the bow thruster on the albin, after a little practice I'll be able to make her dance just like i do with a single outboard. I vote single with the security of the skeg!

[drbob]

We selected our slip so that the dock would be on the starboard as we backed in. With this in mind, we line up on the slip with stern in and the wheel over to starboard. Now as we back and walk to starboard from time to time I have to put the gear in forward with a little goose to move the stern over to port and then I start backing again. Repeat as necessary. Works well.

We also have a line with a loop in the center tied from the forward piling to the aft piling. Now all we need to do is secure the loop in the line to the mid-ship cleat and we're home free. Boat can't swing bow or stern out and that gives us plenty of time to secure the rest of the lines. Getting underway, we just reverse the process. Single handling a single screw boat the easy way.

[Jeremyvmd]

It's funny you mention the single like between the pilings with a loop in it. I briefly had the boat in the water last season before hauling her and I set up the same thing in addition to a spring line on the off side and found the same thing, it allows super easy single handed docking and departures

[crowra]

I can't really answer your questions since I have only had a single engine 36 w/ no bow thruster. There was a time or two where a bow thruster would have given me a tad more 'finesse' when docking but never really needed 8hp forward when I have 210 aft. And my engine room is tight enough with one engine.

[amber jj]

Twins are obviously going to cost twice as much on regular maintenance.The up side is redundancy convenience and maneuverability.It is a lot nicer to take your time and go back to a safe comfortable slip and do your repair rather than bouncing around at sea.The other factor is speed.Our 31TE with the twin 370 Cummins will give me 29 knots when I put her in giddy up gear and 23-24 knots at cruise 2300 RPM .
Fuel?Just keep putting fresh stuff in.The engines will run cooler

[sharffj]

I faced the same questions when buying my 31TE 8 yrs ago. Wanted a single because of the big keel for protection, more room in the hole around the engine, and economy in maintenance with a single vs two. However when I was looking found a twin screw that had the other things I wanted and was well maintained so I went for it. Now after 8 years am very happy I did. We've taken her up the inside passage halfway to Alaska several times usually in the spring and early summer when there is a lot of debris in the water. Have never had a issue with logs or debris damaging the shafts or props which was a worry of mine initially. Just be careful and watch whats out there. Access while tight is doable and I'm over 200lbs and can get to either side of the engines without too much difficulty. Do feel stiff after a days maintenance on the engines. Cost to maintain is double as is fuel usage as well, but do get more speed and we run offshore for albacore in the summer and it's nice to run out at 22knots. Big plus is maneuverability. With twins you can pivot the boat on a dime. Makes for sliding into slips easy. It's nice when cruising and coming into a new marina to have confidence in the handling of the boat. Also the redundancy of 2 engines is nice. 5 or 6 years ago we were coming across the Columbia bar and it was a bit snotty out. The clamp connecting the starboard exhaust elbow broke and we were pouring super hot exhaust out into the engine compartment. Shut down that engine pronto and limped into Astoria one just the port engine, but was much better than having the CG come out and tow us in across a snotty bar. A side note if you plan to fish twins you probably need trolling valves. unless you are fishing only pelagics. Can't get mine under 3.5 to 4 knots without the trolling valves.

[RobS]

...Cost to maintain is double as is fuel usage as well....

Well said, but.......I know you were probably speaking "in general" however I don't agree with the fuel usage being doubled since the twin screw loses that inefficiency of the skeg keel. The only thing that really doubles is the cost of the parts. The labor is not double either since part of labor is setup, breakdown and cleanup..

Both great boats with their own pluses and minuses....

[zinbaad]

I have not run a single on a boat this size other than an out board but I don't believe twins burn twice as much diesel as a single at similar speeds. Double filters and engine zinc, still some protection from the 1/2 keel. HANDLING........ There was a 35 with a single and bow thruster in my marina, when the wind was blowing the bow thruster was barely useful

[Jeremyvmd]

Zinbaad- you bring up an important distinction. With two motors vs one assuming the same size motor, at any given speed the twins will burn more but your right not double. But at a given rpm yes they will burn double. But properly setup the twins will go faster for a given speed. However usually the single engine is much larger (twin 315s vs single 450) so maintenence costs are the biggest difference (although the twins will allways burn more fuel. But likely closer to 25-50% more not double). I will say while some maintenence isn't going to be double. Things like oil changes or winterizing is likely to be double, at least in my marina those are fixed cost items. And if your doing it yourself your using double the materiel.

As far as the handling of twins vs a single with a bow thruster. Properly size a bow thruster will be more efficient at spinning a boat around than twins. The problem is that many boat makers undersize the bow thruster for cost reasons. You don't have to look any further than an a28 to see that. The 23kg bow thruster that many boats shipped with is simply not powerful enough to swing the nose around. However but the upgrade to a 50kg and that nose is much more responsive to the bow thruster. So likely that a35 had a woefully undersized bow thruster. The other comment I will make is that the skipper has a much bigger influence on the handling of a boat than the setup of the boat. Perfect example is in my marina. A few boats down from me is a scout center console. Prob a 30-32 footer with twin 300s and a bow thruster. That particular captain can't (imo) drive that boat. Even with the twins and a bow thruster he had problms putting the boat in the slip. However up in maine I've watched the lobster guys with 40ft true full keep downeast fit into smaller spaces than the slip that the scout was trying to fit into. Those are single screw boats with no bow thruster. Im pretty sure some of those guys could make the boat dance a waltz if they wanted to.