Sail Drive on a Steel boat ?

[TOM]

Can anyone please tell me can you put a sail drive on a steel boat is electrolysis a problem?

[never monday]

If you isolate correctly I can't see where it would be a problem. For years we put AL outdrives on steel houseboats.

[mysacek]

Hallo Tom,
so, you finally put saildrive or not?
I want to put saildrive on my steel ketch. Reason is very good - I should get much more place inside....
Even chenging simmering in water is possible to solve, but galvanic corrosion is nightmare for me - hole in hull is too big to play :-(
Or somebody else has experiences?
Pavel

[Mark Zarley]

The sail drives get "eaten" by their power partner (metalic eng) in plastic boats. Takes a dedicated and knowlegable owner to oversee and maintain the isolation despite the assaults by inept mechanics. The bigger question is if you had the choice, why would you choose such an expensive "zinc"?

[mysacek]

Hallo Mark,
of course I have choice - not to put sail drive.
But I am about to change big industriakl engine to little Kubota, so I will make big changes anyway. And I just have saildrive that I donť have any other use. And with sail drive, I can move engine under stern cabine double bad and middle of boat should be free for salon.
Now engine room takes more than two metres, that is a lot for 12 meters boat.

[witzgall]

You are writing this as it is a forgone conclusion that if you have a saildrive, it will be eaten away. While this has happened, it is far from a certainty, and it really does not take much care and observation from an owner to prevent it.

Have you ever owned a saildrive?

Chris

Originally Posted by Mark Zarley

The sail drives get "eaten" by their power partner (metalic eng) in plastic boats. Takes a dedicated and knowlegable owner to oversee and maintain the isolation despite the assaults by inept mechanics. The bigger question is if you had the choice, why would you choose such an expensive "zinc"?

[djmarchand]

In a steel boat, the entire hull becomes the cathode and the aluminum saildrive becomes the anode (I might have these terms reversed ;-). So the saildrive wastes and not the hull. In fact the saildrive "protects" the hull.

But both are painted and that minimizes wasting and there is a zinc (sometimes magnesium) on the saildrive which is the least noble metal in the combination and it becomes the anode and wastes, not the saildrive.

So maintain the coating and zincs on the saildrive and you should be ok.

David

[steamgoat]

To answer your question, I believe TOM posed this question [almost 3 years ago] when he planned to replace his old Leyland diesel. He ended up with a new Yanmar with a ''V'' drive. A follower of Byamee;s travels, Bruce.