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With Auckland’s one-design MRX fleet being chartered for a wide range of events, including corporate and industry regattas, national championships, women’s and youth racing, the fleet required repowering to maintain reliability for events.

The fleet plays an important role not only in major regattas and top-level racing but also in getting more people involved in sailing. As well as being used for ‘learn to sail’ programmes and introductory ‘have a go’ sessions, owners take new sailors out for rum races. The fleet also provides a great opportunity for parents and their teenagers who have moved on from youth yachting to continue sailing.

Fleet manager Tom Macky says the engine replacement programme has been “pivotal” for the future of the MRXs explaining “the issue of replacing the engines has been hanging over the fleet for a while, but the issue was, because this is a one-design fleet and all the boats have to be identical, we couldn’t replace one engine without doing them all. It would only take one to fail or need to be kept going at a horrendous cost and we would have been in a situation where we would have had to replace the lot at short notice.”

MRX fleet has been given a new lease of life, with all 11 boats being repowered with new Volvo Penta diesel engines. This is the first time the dedicated fleet of Bruce Farr-design race boats built in west Auckland and launched in 1990 for the World Match Racing Championship, have been repowered, after around 32 years of enthusiastic use.

Lachlan Trembath of Ovlov Marine says the company was involved in the initial set-up of the fleet, which has been sailed by the world’s top match racers over the years, as well as being regularly used for fleet racing and other regattas. The boats are privately owned and managed by the owners’ company, MRX Yachting.

Trembath advises “we had been keeping the engines in operation, but maintenance costs were rising and parts were getting harder to procure due to their age. Power sometimes isn’t the top priority because these are predominantly sailing boats and the engines are often just used to get in and out of the marina, but it’s important that they are reliable.”

The new engines are 19hp Volvo Penta D1-20 diesels with saildrives, replacing the slightly less powerful 18hp original units. They are fresh-water cooled, as opposed to the old engines which were salt-water cooled, and have three cylinders and smoother running, so are more fuel-efficient. They come with an industry-leading five-year warranty and will result in considerably reduced maintenance costs for the fleet.

Fortunately, the owners were in agreement on updating all the engines and the management committee was able to move forward with the repowering project this year, taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity provided by the disruptions of the covid pandemic.

Macky adds “during covid, although we didn’t have as much money from charters coming into the fleet, there also wasn’t a fleet manager employed, so we were able to build up some cash reserves, which we have been able to use to offset the amount each owner put in for the repower project. Then Ovlov, with the support of Volvo Penta International, was able to come to us with an excellent package for the engines, and for the installation. They looked after us really well, and it’s a great example of the support the fleet receives from them and the wider marine industry.”

The first four boats, including Ovlov’s own sponsored boat, have had new engines installed, another four will be done before Christmas, and the last ones completed in March.

The Ovlov-sponsored boat is part-owned by current women’s national keelboat champion Sally Garrett, who campaigns it with a female and mixed crew throughout the year.

Garrett shares “we sailed with the new engine a couple of weeks ago and it started first time and operated flawlessly. As an owner it brings peace of mind knowing that when I need the engine to go, it will. The MRXs are used many times a week by a variety of people, and I can’t think of a harder job for an engine, doing short trips where they never get fully heated up. After thirty plus years of hard work, it’s been fantastic to be able again work with Ovlov Marine and Volvo Penta to repower the fleet.”

Image: MRX contesting the New Zealand Women's Keelboat National Championship

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