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Old 17-06-2016, 13:23   #121
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Thanks for the additional data point. The Suzuki arrived but I have not fired it up yet. The dimensions I had for it were off. From the cavitation plate to the bottom of the skeg is just over 10"s so that helps getting it deeper a little easier.

This weekend I'll be sanding the inside of the transom on each side of the vertical chainplate reinforcement and then epoxying in a 12x24x1" fiberglass plate on each side of the reinforcement. When that is done I can get the mount on and the engine in place to start wiring it all in. I also need to lock the steering dead ahead (no tiller). At a later date I may see about remote steering too but that may not be needed.

Shawn
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Old 30-06-2016, 20:31   #122
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Just an update on this. I did get the transom reinforcements in. The Sabre transom has a reinforcement in it for the chainplate and they stagger the width of the glass in the transom.


You can see this in the triangle shape getting smaller as you go down.


I used multiple layers of mat cut to the same shape to flatten out this area of the transom and then a larger piece of mat a little bigger than the 1'x2'x1" fiberglass plates I was installing. Test fitting the cut mat...


The fiberglass plates in place and waiting for the epoxy to cure.


Garelick mount with Suzuki on it..



With the mount all the way down. I ended up using it one click up. 4:1 block to make raising it easy.


Factory remote steering setup on the Suzuki...



HDPE plate and M6 and M10 bolt locking the steering dead ahead. Engine tilts fine with this in place.



Glassing over the prop shaft hole and strut. I also glassed in the inside of the prop shaft tube inside the boat. That combined with the power tilt means less drag when sailing.



Green demon exorcism...






When I get the engine bay cleaned up that will be a lot more storage.Even more when I pull the 20 gallon tank. Perfect place to put my inflatable dinghy.

Boat was launched today. Initial cruise was about 16 miles back to my home port. The Suzuki ran like a top. At less than 1/2 throttle it was driving the boat to 4.5-5 knots. GPS was saying about 4.7 and that was into a slack tide.

Video of engine here.

The wind picked up at the end of the trip and I just had a working jib out in roughly 15 knot wind. Boat was driven easily into the 5 knot range with the Suzuki tilted up out of the water. Less drag is nice!

For about 2.5 hours of motoring I burned a little over a gallon of fuel. The Suzuki is shockingly quiet at idle. Each time I throttle back to idle I thought the engine had stalled.

Obviously, just initial impressions, but I am very pleased so far.

Shawn
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Old 30-06-2016, 20:46   #123
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Wow, looks great! Is that an MD7A you pulled out? I have a friend who may want to buy it for parts. I think you have sold me on the Suzuki! How much does it weigh again? BTW I find it to be very handy to have the option of turning the engine if needed on my boat, makes it VERY maneuverable!
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Old 01-07-2016, 02:18   #124
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Nice setup. Love the power tilt. Not sure I would have mounted the remote controls on the rail, but its probably easy to reach. Remote controls is a must when using an outboard on a bigger boat. Interesting that you locked the remote steering in one position. Remote steering would have bought you better tight turning capability. Could have used stick steering without taking up much room. Always an option for later. Good job!
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Old 01-07-2016, 05:11   #125
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

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Originally Posted by Don C L View Post
Wow, looks great! Is that an MD7A you pulled out? I have a friend who may want to buy it for parts. I think you have sold me on the Suzuki! How much does it weigh again? BTW I find it to be very handy to have the option of turning the engine if needed on my boat, makes it VERY maneuverable!
The Suzuki is about 125 pounds. I probably will make it so that I can steer the outboard too. I was up against a launch deadline from the storage yard. If I didn't get it in by yesterday they were going to drop the mast and move me to long term storage. As such I didn't have time to work out steering yet.

Yup, MD7A I pulled. I actually have two of them and will be looking to sell them both.

Thanks,

Shawn
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Old 01-07-2016, 05:32   #126
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

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Originally Posted by hsi88 View Post
Nice setup. Love the power tilt. Not sure I would have mounted the remote controls on the rail, but its probably easy to reach. Remote controls is a must when using an outboard on a bigger boat. Interesting that you locked the remote steering in one position. Remote steering would have bought you better tight turning capability. Could have used stick steering without taking up much room. Always an option for later. Good job!
The power tilt is very nice. It really makes the outboard easy to use and makes the moveable mount a little redundant.

Tilting in action.

I wasn't sure where to put the controls either. I wanted somewhere that wouldn't sacrifice any seating. The only other option would have been down by the cockpit floor but that felt like it would be in the way of feet when moving around the wheel. I wouldn't have been able to shift gears while standing (docking) with it down there. I wanted to try the rail position first as it was easy to do. I can always change it later if I wanted to. I might try linking the shift/throttle linkage into my pedestal controls. If I do that I'd put the remote unit inside the rear seat locker. That is where the ignition and shutdown for the inboard was anyway.

Remote steering is likely in the future. The time crunch kept me from doing anything with that yet. Something like the EZY-GLIDE would be nice if it could be locked in position.

With the steering fixed ahead I'm not really sure how my maneuverability compares yet. With the inboard and offset prop I could push the bow to starboard with prop wash, can't do that with the outboard. On the flip side I now have prop wash over the rudder in reverse so I should be able to steer backwards easier.

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Old 01-07-2016, 11:19   #127
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

If you find a clean way to rig up remote steering you'll be loving life. I have room to lean over and steer mine and I was able to use my boat to raft up to a friend's to ferry him over to the yard. I could steer both of our boats rafted with precision. Try that with an inboard! Not sure about that predicted precise steering in reverse though!
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Old 01-07-2016, 11:44   #128
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Yeah-if anyone finds an outboard that actually works well in reverse, please do share it! My tohatsu 6 sailpro has quite a bit of lag between when I gun it in reverse, and when the boat stops its forward motion alongside the dock - and I'm only coming into the dock at about 1 to 1.5 know knots. I've had to resort to warping *gasp*

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Old 01-07-2016, 12:31   #129
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

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Yeah-if anyone finds an outboard that actually works well in reverse, please do share it! My tohatsu 6 sailpro has quite a bit of lag between when I gun it in reverse, and when the boat stops its forward motion alongside the dock - and I'm only coming into the dock at about 1 to 1.5 know knots. I've had to resort to warping *gasp*
The Suzuki stopped my Sabre fine coming into the dock. I was doing about 1.5 knots (to make the final 90 degree turn) and didn't put it into reverse until the bow was already within the length of the dock. Stopped fine without hitting anything. I had tested stopping in the harbor ahead of time to be sure.

I had a Sailpro on my Compac 23. Nice little motor but I didn't use it to stop me when docking. It was the older model with the shifter on the side and it was too difficult to get to that leaning through my rails. I just used a thin spring line over a cleat to stop me. That was a much lighter boat though.

Added: The props are pretty different between the two motors. The Sailpro has a 8.3" x 6" pitch 3 bladed prop. The Suzuki is a 10" x 5 " pitch 4 bladed prop. The Suzuki also has a little under 3x the displacement for more low end torque to get that prop moving. It should stop better than the Sailpro.

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Old 01-07-2016, 12:36   #130
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

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If you find a clean way to rig up remote steering you'll be loving life. I have room to lean over and steer mine and I was able to use my boat to raft up to a friend's to ferry him over to the yard. I could steer both of our boats rafted with precision. Try that with an inboard! Not sure about that predicted precise steering in reverse though!
If I could lock it I was actually thinking about the gear shifter on the pedestal might be interesting for outboard steering. It wouldn't lock straight ahead though. I could likely put some type of stick steering behind the outboards remote. Backing out of my slip with my Compac 23 and steering with the Sailpro was a piece of cake.

Not sure about the rear steering either but will know soon enough. I will be backing out of the slip tomorrow.

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Old 02-07-2016, 02:58   #131
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Good luck backing up! And thanks for the thoughts on reversing! The last time I needed the sailpro in reverse desperately was in Beaufort, NC; trying to back and turn against a current. The current won

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Old 14-07-2016, 16:04   #132
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

We just completed our first Atlantic crossing without a diesel engine. We have a tohatsu sailpro 6hp mounted on the transom. Our boat is an Allied Seawind 30 and weighs about 13,000 lbs loaded. We are pleased with how the motor moves the boat in protected waters. We are even more pleased with the maneuverability it provides us at slow speeds. We have not used the engine at sea, but leave it stowed on it's transom mount. The motor's lower unit does get dunked occasionally on the starboard tack when seas are up. In hind sight I would actually consider an even smaller motor, perhaps a 3.5hp, that can be stowed easily in a locker or v-berth while at sea. But so far so good with Sailpro mounted on the transom. Here is a link to a video on our site that shows the outboard in few different sea states.

https://sailingdawntreader.com/2016/...crossing-2016/

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Old 14-07-2016, 18:03   #133
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Fun video and congrats on a successful crossing! You were able to get the motor pretty high up above the rail. Are you using a standard spring loaded swing mount or rolling tracks?

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Old 14-07-2016, 23:07   #134
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

brownoarsman, We use a standard spring style adjustable mount made by Garhauer for Catalinas. I believe it has 17" maximum vertical travel which is the most we could find. The mounts are not on their website but can be still be purchased if you call them. Unless there is some wave action, we don't deploy the mount fully down, but instead to it's intermediate position which I think is 13" down.
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Old 15-07-2016, 09:04   #135
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Re: Pro/Con of outboard for blue water cruising

Nice video, glad to Sailpro is working out for you! Those are nice engines.

Still loving the Suzuki on my boat, even more so as I continue to remove all the supporting bits and pieces the old diesel required. It is opening up a lot more storage.

Shawn
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