Yanmar marine engines, from a Yanmar dealer in Scotland
Ferry Marine is an authorised Yanmar marine dealer in Livingston, twenty minutes from Edinburgh, and one of only a handful in Scotland. We supply new Yanmar inboard diesels from 10hp to 640hp, install them properly, and look after them for the rest of their working lives.
Yanmar is the diesel we'd put in a sailing yacht, a motor cruiser or a boat that works for a living. Compact, economical and very hard to wear out, a Yanmar marine engine is the one we see still running cleanly at thousands of hours — and it's properly supported here in Scotland by Ferry Marine.
Yanmar shaft, saildrive or sterndrive
Part of choosing a Yanmar is choosing what it turns.
- Shaft drive — engine, Yanmar marine gearbox and a conventional propeller shaft. The standard installation for most yachts, displacement cruisers and workboats.
- Saildrive — engine and drive leg as one unit, down through the hull. The usual answer on modern sailing yachts: lighter, quieter, no shaft alignment to go out, and a seal that needs changing on schedule.
- Sterndrive — a Yanmar diesel with a sterndrive leg, for planing boats that want diesel economy with outdrive handling.
Replacing an engine is often the right moment to look at the drive as well. We'll tell you honestly whether yours is worth keeping. We install all three.
The Yanmar marine diesel engine range, 10hp to 640hp
Every Yanmar marine engine is a four-stroke diesel, and the range divides by the kind of boat it's built for. (Yanmar quotes its engines in metric horsepower; the figures below are Yanmar's own.)
Yanmar GM and YM — 10hp to 30hp
Compact one, two and three-cylinder engines for sailing yachts, and the ones most often paired with a Yanmar saildrive. The 1GM10 is the smallest marine engine Yanmar makes; the YM series — the 3YM20 and 3YM30 among them — is the modern replacement for the old 2GM20 and 3GM30.
Yanmar JH — 40hp to 110hp
Four-cylinder common-rail diesels and the workhorse of the range: larger yachts, motor cruisers and displacement workboats.
Yanmar 4LV and 8LV — 150hp to 370hp
For larger RIBs, planing motor boats and sportscruisers. The 8LV is a V8, and often runs as a pair.
Yanmar 6LY, 6LF and 6LT — 400hp to 640hp
Six-cylinder engines for larger RIBs, motor yachts and commercial craft. We install the big V8s and six-cylinders as well as the smaller engines.
Horsepower is only half the choice. The same engine can suit one hull and be wrong for the next, depending on the boat's weight, its speed, how it's used and what it's driving. Tell us the boat and we'll tell you which Yanmar it needs. Most of the smaller engines we install are YMs going into sailing yachts, and JHs into motor cruisers and workboats.
Replacing an old inboard diesel with a new Yanmar
Most Yanmar work starts with an engine that has reached the end — a tired GM in a thirty-year-old yacht, or an old Volvo Penta or Perkins that's become more trouble than it's worth. A new Yanmar is usually a better spend than another rebuild. But an inboard isn't a like-for-like swap, and most of the job is everything around the engine:
- Beds and mounts. A new engine rarely matches the old one's footprint. The beds are modified or rebuilt so it sits right and stays there.
- Alignment. Shaft and coupling lined up precisely once the boat has settled. Get it wrong and it eats cutless bearings and gearbox seals.
- Exhaust and cooling. Wet exhaust, water lock and siphon break where the engine sits near the waterline, and a raw-water intake sized for the new engine.
- Fuel. New lines, filtration and a water separator. A modern common-rail diesel is far less forgiving of dirty fuel than the engine it replaces.
- Panel and wiring. A new instrument panel, loom and charging to the battery bank — done by the same people. See boat electrics and electronics.
- Commissioning. Run, checked under load and handed over with the paperwork done.
Sometimes rebuilding the engine you have is the better answer, and we'll say so.
Buying a new Yanmar from Ferry Marine
New, and properly supplied
Every Yanmar we install is supplied by Yanmar UK. No grey imports, nothing second-hand.
YM engines in stock
We keep Yanmar's YM series on the shelf, so a new yacht engine doesn't have to wait on an order. Anything larger is ordered in for your boat.
Two years' warranty, and the option of five
Every new Yanmar carries two years or 1,000 hours, whichever comes first. For leisure use it can be extended by a further three years; for commercial use, by one. We register it on handover.
The old engine dealt with
If the engine coming out still has some life in it, we may take it in part-exchange against the new Yanmar, depending on its age and condition. If not, we'll lift it out and dispose of it responsibly.
Looked after by the people who installed it
Your Yanmar's servicing and repair is done by the engineers who put it in, and its history stays in one place.
If it's an outboard you're after rather than an inboard, see our new outboard engines.
Where your Yanmar is installed
Every Yanmar we supply is installed here, in our Livingston workshop — not at a mooring, and not on a hardstanding somewhere else. The engine goes in where the tools, the lifting gear and the engineers are, and the job is done once, properly, under one roof.
- Getting the boat here — lift-out and road transport — is down to the owner. We'll agree a date with you so everything's ready when it arrives.
- If you run boats commercially — workboats, tour and charter boats, military boats, a sailing school or a marina fleet — you'll be in good company: commercial operators already run Yanmars with us. We'll work round your season, and we'd rather schedule a repower over the winter than take a working boat off the water in June.
A Yanmar marine dealer for Scotland and the north of England
Search for a Yanmar dealer near you and most of what comes back sells diggers and tractors. We're the marine side: Livingston, EH54, just off the M8, between the Clyde and the Forth.
Yanmar owners come to us from the west coast, Fife, the Highlands and the north of England, and for anyone looking for Yanmar dealers in the UK north of the Lake District, we're one of very few who work on boats.
Yanmar questions we get asked
Are you an authorised Yanmar dealer?
Yes — for Yanmar marine engines. We supply, install and service Yanmar's leisure and commercial marine diesels.
Can you replace my old Yanmar 2GM20 or 3GM30?
Yes. The YM series is the modern successor to both, and it's one of the most common jobs we do. The new engine won't drop straight onto the old mounts, so expect some work on the beds — we'll tell you what's involved before anything's ordered.
Will you service a Yanmar you didn't supply?
Yes. We service and repair Yanmar marine diesels wherever they came from.
What warranty comes with a new Yanmar?
Two years or 1,000 hours, whichever comes first, for leisure and commercial use alike. Leisure owners can extend it by a further three years, and commercial operators by one. Ask us about the extension when you order.
Tell us about the boat, and the engine in it!
Send us the boat — make, length and whether it's sail or power — the engine that's in it, and how you use it. We'll come back with the Yanmar we'd install, what the job involves and what it costs.