Leave outboard up or down in salt water?

[krissteyn]

The etiquette of leaving your motor up at a crowded dinghy dock ???
I've had a 600$ repair bill from somebody's prop that sliced open my RIB , so have a bias about it...
I leave my motor up as mutch as possible , but always down at the dinghy dock unless I cover it - I modified an old fender to fit properly...
A bucket also works , but UV destroys them quickly...

[Benz]

This thread has drifted from whether a cruising boat with an OB should leave the motor in the water when anchored to whether a dinghy dock should feature motors tilted up. Two different issues: one practical for the life of the motor; one etiquette.
There's a giant thread on dinghy dock etiquette already on this forum.
I find the OP's question interesting as one of the boaters whose big boat has an outboard: we're a small subset of the cruising community, and some of us prefer to have the OB always up unless it's on, while others leave it in more than not, or even have it idling on standby in a tricky channel.
There's a comfort to knowing the motor's already in the water and just a pull of the cord away from getting you out of trouble when sailing up a narrow channel: I have to do a double gybe in mine, barey twenty feet from people knee-deep with fishing poles, no room to bal out, and a heavy current.
On my previous boat the engine sat in a well and could never come out: I hated that, since it slowed the boat down and made the zinc hard to get to. Still, it stayed nice surprisingly long. I doubt it would have for the 14 years of hard use out of it that I got from my other one that DID come out, and had no damage alow before the powerhead died.

[thomm225]

Slight drift here, but another thing about the smaller outboards when attached to external tanks is they can shut down unexpectedly at the worse possible time like entering your home creek that has a rock jetty on both sides or while docking.

To be safe, I leave the mainsail up while entering my creek which can have very strong current right at the mouth since it's very close to the Atlantic Ocean but in the Chesapeake Bay. If the engine shuts down and I cannot start it fast, I'll sail the rest of the way in or out whichever is best. I can roll the jib out fast if needed since it's on a furler.

When docking if my engine has been messing up, I'll switch to the integral or internal tank.

If the wind is up say 14 knots on up, the engine stays up and I just sail in through the jetties on up until I'm in the calm of the land protection then drop the motor in while still sailing on autopilot.

My engine hasn't done this in years so maybe I had something wrong, but a friend of mine who just bought an Alberg 30 with a 6 HP Tohatsu Sail Pro experienced this problem while docking. That engine has no integral tank.

He is thinking it could be the large fuel filter similar to what an inboard has that his fuel line goes through. He plans to bypass that.

This was on his first sail with that boat.

[thomm225]

About the only time I'll have my outboard down in the water while sailing is if I'm getting close to my creek, and the winds are light.

Like in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN-Rv4UObWI

[Goodxcharly]

I had a trailerable sailboat for 25 years. I always left the motor in unless I was sailing. To reduce drag. No adverse effects.
I don’t think you need to worry about corrosion as much with these newer outboards as you did with older ones.

[pbmaise]

One thought on this issue that I would consider is SAFETY. You are the one who knows how to get the engine in the water when you need it. How about the casual day person who sails with you?

Imagine a panicked fellow sailor who is trying to get the engine back into the water and started because you suffered a heart attack or fell off. Or what about if you are on a collision course and becalmed?

Imagine what will happen if they start the engine in a panic and it isn't even in the water.

At a minimum if you are pulling the engine up. Everyone you sail with should be trained again and again how to get it back in the water and how to start it.

Everyone who sailed with me more than a few hours was trained in the manual steps necessary before and after turning the key. I.E. checking if raw water valve was open, confirming raw water flow, how to manually bump the pulley belt safely with your hand if the belt is slipping.

I also learned that you had about 12 minutes of engine time if someone needed to start the engine in an extreme panic and didn't open/confirm water cooling. I carried extra pump impellers in this event.

[OneBoatman]

Keep a zinc on it, flush it when you can, change the crankcase oil at least once or twice a season and the lower end at least every other year. It should last at least 10-15 yrs without difficulty.

[svandante]

I have a 1997 Nissan 9.8 for my inflatable. I used it extensively in the NW and the biggest problem was marine growth. Same while in the tropics. Five years in the tropics, I pulled it out of the water at night, 50/50 during the day. Shocking thing is I never had opportunity to do a fresh water flush in five years. I had to remove the cylinder head to replace the thermostat (that’s another bizarre engineer’s story) and fully expected severe corrosion. Shockingly there was very minimal corrosion and salt accumulation in the water passages.
Bottom line, apparently it didn’t matter in my aluminum block.
Now, why on earth would an engineer design an outboard where head removal was required to replace a thermostat??

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by massnspace

Also, when trailering I am worried about the stresses on the hydraulic ram. Do such motors have a way to lock the piston up while trailering?

It's best to trailer the boat with the motor down as it puts less stress on the bracket and on the transom (other boats) or that teak 2x6 the motor clamps to (your boat).


By the way, those teak 2x6s tend to rot at the attachment bolts. I replaced mine in time. Other people have had the outboard and the 2x6 fall off together while under way. Worth a close look.

[tbeargladd]

No disrespect to others who have replied to this post. You should always tilt your outboard out of saltwater, only if you are not going to be using the outboard for more than a couple of days or more. If you are going to be using the outboard again within hours of a day than it is okay to leave your outboard in the sea water. Corrosiveness' and the fouling of the lower end of the outboard, which means growth will forum on the lower end which means cleaning the prop. So, if you're not going be using you outboard within a week you should tilted it out of the water. Now, not only are you preventing foul growth on the lower end by tilting the motor out of the sea water for a long period of time, you are also (when you tilt the motor out of the sea water) clearing the carburetor from gas sitting in the bowl and becoming stagnate fuel in the bowl of the carburetor which makes the engine hard to start when you come back to use the outboard. So, I say again, it's better for the outboard to be tilted out of sea water if you are not going to be using the outboard for long periods of time.

[KP44]

Originally Posted by ChrisJHC

Maybe it’s an Australian thing, but I’ve never seen or heard of anyone leaving their outboard down in the water when either sailing or stopped.

Not an Australian thing at all.
We always tilt the outboard out of the salt water unless we will use it within a day. Always. Our little 23' had a 20+ year-old outboard that started on the first pull and ran forever on a couple liters of fuel.
I have seen many small outboards ruined (in mild Puget Sound) by leaving them down and in the salt. The ocean is like a battery and is constantly trying to dissolve your engine. Keep it out of the salt water whenever you can.