saildrive

Hi Sassy,

MarkJ's comment about saildrives is spot on. I fitted a long Sillette Cat-drive to Grey Dove and it worked very well although with the same draw-backs as an outboard, ie a hole in the pod!
My mistake was that I was fixated on having a steerable liftable leg, thereby requiring a big hole. This was a complete waste of time and made the boat vulnerable. If I were to do it again I would fix the leg in position, say with a rubber gasket around where it penetrated the pod, and fit it with a folding prop. That would work nicely. The leg itself is relatively slender and the longshaft leg puts the prop really deep so lots of shove from a Yanmar 2GM 20 even in a seaway.

I have since bitten the bullet and converted to hydraulic driven shafts in each hull so if you want to buy a breathtakingly cheap used but sound cat drive it is sitting on a pallet in my garage….make me an offer!

Hi Dave
Also like some info on the hydralic drive u use.

Regards

Steve, re Hydraulic drive;

This is simplicity itself. Anglian diesels removed the gearbox and bell housing, fitted a replacement housing with a large flexible coupling driving a fixed swash hydraulic pump. I fitted a ganged pair of pilot valves on to a bracket on the engine support frame. (This frame sits on two rails in the engine pod allowing the engine to be withdrawn into the cockpit for maintenance). Two motor units (each the size of a family tin of beans) are fitted to the drive shafts (one in each hull…. obviously!). The pump and motor units are identical giving a 2:1 reduction as per the original gear box.

The hydraulic pipes were made up by a man from Pirtek with a van and connected to give “handed” drive , ie one rotates to port and one to starboard, obviating any paddle wheel effect when going astern. To ansure minimum vibration, I bolted each motor coupling to its shaft and the motors to dwarf mounting bulkheads, fitted the shafts into glass fibre stern tubes and glassed the whole lot as one unit into the boat, ensuring perfect alignment. I then split the coupling and inserted flexibles but these are probably unnecessary.

Anglian diesels provided all the hydraulics and Sillette the propellors, shafts and stern tubes.

er…thats it. DavidH

David – what's your best guess on cost if starting from scratch and poor DIY skills?

Nothing! Have centrally mounted outboard, so teher is a spce for an inboard diesel…

It would be easier if the engine was going in the outboard 'well', that's out of the living area's. I guess all diesel engines smell, just twice as bad on a cat!

Hi Bruce

The information on your site is very good. However the pricing is rather frightening. Even with the labour costs removed that is a lot of outboard engines!!
It might have to be plan B – to see if an electric outboard could be fitted to the stern to work like a bow thruster!

Thanks for the info,

Steve

Electric Outboards & Billiant
Just found the site. Search Torqeedo.
Looks like spot on but would two (equal to) 6 hp be ok for a twins 26.
Rgds

I just checked with the UK distributors as I realised you meant 2 rather than a single unit – thereby making 12hp. They reckoned 4hp was more likely each but with a much more efficient torque curve so at least as good as a 9.9 petrol outboard. The only problem is the lack of useful experience as they've only sold 2 of this model in the last year.

This electric propulsion business is just a bit too young in the medium sized leisure market – hope it matures before my aging Yam 9.9 gives up!