Sail Drives..Like em?

[smj]

Tamicatana, your Catana is one of my favorite boats. Almost bought one about 7 years ago. I couldn't get my head around the Volvo diesel and saildrive and the owner wouldn't drop the price enough to make it feasible to pull the diesels and install outboards. With the weight savings and the lack of drag from removing the diesels, that would have been one fast boat!

[tamicatana]

Thanks smj

I do like the reliability of my girls (Gee and Haw, we call them) compared to my various OB engines, even if I suffer the weight penalty. It would take some serious surgery to install OB and you might lose less weight than you think

[smj]

Catana did produce a 37'er with a single Yamaha 9.9 in the early nineties. Guess it didn't do that well in the market.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

Having seen the rubber gasket/boot of my Volvo saildrives, first I'd say… wow, what a catastrophe it must be to wreck that thickness of rubber. I should think you'd have holes in the hull as well, like as in, you've run aground on a reef type stuff. Secondly, it would only take some thought to concoct a kit (similar to the idea of having bung plugs laying about) which would be capable of plugging your saildrive boot. Say, a blanket or a large beach towel. Thirdly, since I have a catamaran, I probably wouldn't sink in any case, and honestly the idea of a great huge lump of lead taking me to the bottom is far more scary to me than the saildrive aperture, and there are certainly plenty of boats carrying huge lumps of lead weight and they're doing ok :-)

…and, like cattales' pic above, we've fitted a fairing boot which is additional insurance or at least some reduction of inflow.

Hey now!!!!

Let's be fair here.... I have a "lump of lead", "encapsulated lead", and a "swinging blade"....

They could all take me to the bottom!

[tamicatana]

HappyMdRsailor

well, brutha, you gotta die of somethin'. Not to take this off, but if y'all are going to Miami, how are you getting there? Flying or driving?

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by smj

Tamicatana, your Catana is one of my favorite boats. Almost bought one about 7 years ago. I couldn't get my head around the Volvo diesel and saildrive and the owner wouldn't drop the price enough to make it feasible to pull the diesels and install outboards. With the weight savings and the lack of drag from removing the diesels, that would have been one fast boat!

And one zippy looking ride to boot.... Reminds me of a racehorse craning it's neck out of a stable door ready to go like the wind....

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

HappyMdRsailor

well, brutha, you gotta die of somethin'. Not to take this off, but if y'all are going to Miami, how are you getting there? Flying or driving?

I want to die of "excessive-grinning" please!

Heavily heeling (green water rails) towards making the show... Drive most likely... but if stag, 50-50 fly/drive....

[Freerider]

Sign me up in the "hate" category. Mine always seems to leak water into the unit, which just costs extra cash hauling and replacing seals.

The problem this past month has been that the actual saildrive engine bed has started to leak. There is obviously a small pin hole somewhere between the hull and bed that is slowly sinking the boat. I'm not sure how I'll properly find and fix the leak with out pulling the boat, the pulling the engine and slap a layer of fibreglass over everything.

Both of these problems wouldn't exist wi a shaft drive boat.

[Cheechako]

Never had one issue with a shaft drive in 40 years (other than repacking) Everyone I know who has an outddrive boat has had expensive repairs.. everyone...Mercruiser, Volvo,OMC.. you name it.... In my mind the saildrive is similar.
I'm not sure if the saildrive is less expensive to install or not, but you dont need someone who knows how to align an engine etc at the boat factory. So Joey who was flipping burgers last week can install your powerplant!

[Stu Jackson]

This is like a lot fo other boating equipment

--- those that have 'em love 'em and defend 'em

--- those who don't, well, don't

In this case, my shaft boat says that its hole is much smaller in the bottom of the boat.

[Cheechako]

Anyone with a saildrive ought to love plastic seacocks, nylon thru hulls and brass gate valves! haha.. just kidding... well.. kinda...

[Cotemar]

Like Sail Drives or not is sort of a moot point as that is what most boat manufactures are putting in there new boats today. If you do not like Sail Drives then just buy an older boat with shaft drives or with the little Yamaha 9.9 outboards.

With the new boat designs today you get Sail Drives.

Next time you buy a car, ask them for the no-seatbelt model. They will not sell you one.
Then buy the car anyway and remove the seatbelts and now guess what your car will not start as the computers thinks it’s broken.

I have had Sail Drives for 5 years now and they have been trouble free. It's a very compact design that is easy and cheap for the manufacturer to install and that is why they are showing up in all the new boat designs.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Everyone I know who has an outddrive boat has had expensive repairs.. everyone...Mercruiser, Volvo,OMC.. you name it.... In my mind the saildrive is similar.

But outside your mind, the reality is that comparing an outdrive to a saildrive is apples and oranges, which also look vaguely similar. Horses look similar to cows, also.

I know I'm wasting my breath every time I write this, but outdrives and saildrives are such different beasts as to have almost no similarity at all.

Outside some people's minds, that is.

Mark

[smj]

Originally Posted by colemj

But outside your mind, the reality is that comparing an outdrive to a saildrive is apples and oranges, which also look vaguely similar. Horses look similar to cows, also.

I know I'm wasting my breath every time I write this, but outdrives and saildrives are such different beasts as to have almost no similarity at all.

Outside some people's minds, that is.

Mark

I wouldn't say outdrives are that different from saildrives. They are both gears encased in aluminum with the purpose of transferring power from the engine to the prop. In fact if you were to see a schematic of both I would bet they would look a lot alike. The difference being the outdrive can be pulled out of the water were the saildrive is immersed full time.

[colemj]

OK. You believe that. Don't pay attention to the other niggly differences. BTW, shaft drives are also gears encased in aluminum with the purpose of transferring power from the engine to the prop. So to me, outdrives look like shaft drives.

Mark