This sportfishing vessel is owned by Pat Maloney (PMaloney@bautelaw.com) in Marina Del Ray, Ca. but is berthed and fished out of San Diego (close to where the Albies and Tuna hang out).

Pat contacted me back in early 2002, when his old engines began to act up. He had 8.2 Detroit’s and was tired of missing fishing trips (seasons) because of the unreliability of his Detroit’s. After spending thousands of dollars on “patches,” in late 2002, Patrick finally decided to bite the bullet and put in new engines. Plus, like most boats of this vintage, performance was marginal at best even when they ran well – 16-17 K’s cruising just doesn’t cut the mustard. He loved his boat and from my experience the 32 Hat was a great fishing platform but needed some modern reliable diesels to bring it up to full potential. We looked at what his needs were along with all the costs and compared them with what the right engine would be for this application. We decided that the Cummins 330 Diamond coupled to ZF220A 1.5 ratio gears would be the best over choice.. He had a budget to stay within and also knew that like most repowers that some things would also be upgraded along the way that would add to the overall cost…..

Besides the engine and trannies that needed replacing, exhaust systems, fuel systems, batteries and battery distribution systems, seawater systems, engine mounting hardware, all gages and harnesses, auto pilot, trim tabs, bilge systems, shaft logs, strut bearings and props, etc, etc, would all need upgrading… Initial budget about $80,000………..Sounds like a lot, but what he ended up with will prove to be a great investment and $$ well spent…

A partial list of “New Stuff”:

  • (2) Cummins 330 Diamonds w/ ZF 220A’s
  • (2) Austral 21×21 4B cupped Nibral Class 1 prop scanned props
  • New custom 5″ exhaust
  • New Morse 33C Supreme cables and hardware thru-out
  • All new Battery 2/0 cabling and switches w/ parallel capability
  • (2) group 31 (1 ea engine) and (2) 8D (house) Lifeline AGM batteries and custom Starboard boxes/mounts Complete battery auto isolation system w/ auto charging of all batteries w/ digital read outs for the 3 isolated banks
  • Completely refurbished 5Kw Northern Lights Generator
  • New full length aluminum engine rails/beds along w/ custom trans and engine brackets
  • 2″ thru hulls and HD strainers/pick-ups and hoses
  • New multi-stage fuel filter system, and 100% all new fuel lines fitting thru out
  • Comnav 1101 auto pilot w/ HD AccurSteer hyd pump
  • All new gages and harnesses w/ added pyro’s, boost, and trans gages
  • New transducer and new 582L Furuno fish finder
  • New and remounted trim tabs (moved to the outside of the boat – for some reason, the olds ones were mounted on the keel)
  • New front and rear strut bearings and HD packing glands/hoses/ clamps etc.
  • New bilge pumps wiring and hoses, etc ( 2 existing pumps w/ 1 new pump)
  • All new insulation and bracing for aluminum center hatches
  • New Custom 1″ Divincell foam cored combo Jacuzzi / 150+ gallon fish box insert

What we didn’t do was the bottom.. Patrick wants to go fishing before the season ends, and will have the bottom sandblasted to remove 20 years of bottom paint this winter.. His bottom paint was pretty rough but performance was still as good or better than we hoped for…..

Sea trial on 30 Aug yielded the following:

  • 28.4 to 29.2 Knots at 2835/2850 RPM WOT
  • Honest cruise @ 2200 RPM and 21+ knots / 13-14 PSI boost both engines
  • 1800 RPM gave us 16+ Kts and below 10PSI boost
  • 100% full fuel 3 tanks (300+ gallons) , 2 full bait tanks, 3 guys w/ lots of tools and spares, canvas up and decent weather

Had the bottom been new and smooth, I think we’d seen 2900+ RPM and 30K, but that doesn’t matter anyway as the boat handles best at 18-21 K’s………..Very smooth and quiet and I think when the dust settles, she”ll be a strong, economical and reliable 18-20K cruiser loaded for bear at under 14gph avg…………….

Before Photos