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Paul and I are accepting memberships for the 2008 Spinning Flywheel of Death club right now.....

When I see "kicker mount" mentioned, I think of a place where a smaller motor can be mounted to maneuver one's Mac instead of using a large horse power motor. I now see that it is also a place for securing the motor from one's dinghy when towing. May I ask why?

I simply tilt my dinghy's motor up when towing it.

I would like to see a reply (from anyone who removes the motor from their dinghy for towing) why removing the motor is preferred to just towing the dinghy with the motor flipped up and out of the way.

Ray

On edit: I received a response from Duane Dunn, Allegro to a similar request for understanding about this subject on another thread. I have a better understanding of why others remove dinghy motors. I still won't, but I now know why some do.

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the spirited discussion! And Happy New Year!

As to why I remove the kicker: I deflate my tender and put it up on the bow, necessitating a kicker mount. It's not very difficult to deal with deflating as often as I use it. And having access to the top speeds of the MAC is very valuable to me.

Currently I'm using the main and the main halyard as a davit to lower the engine into the floating dinghy.

Oddly, the outboard and mount take up little room in the flying seat, so the seat is still quite usable... If you're not too heavy.

As to the questions about loading on the seat. Regardless of whether the load is a human being or an outboard, the load will be translated by the stiff railing to the various points that the railing connects with the hull. The railing is certainly strong enough. The weak point is the hull attach points. The seat is designed to take the load of a man- probably 250 pounds- and the hull attach points are designed to handle that load.

According to my calculations and measurements, the load that the outboard puts on the seat will be about 40 pounds vertically upward on the front seat support and 90 pounds vertically downward on the rear supports. A 250 pound human in the seat would put approximately 120 pounds vertically downward on both. A human should be able to lean on the back railing without actually sitting in the seat. That would create a substantial- guess 50 pound - vertically up load on the front flying seat support. Therefore, the load of the outboard is less than the load of a human in the various common modes of usage. Sorry, I'm an engineer

John

Don't apologize It's good to get quality answers to viable concerns.

Now, are you a good, engineer Just kidding


Ray