Getting Ready!!

[Tsatzsue]

Well,
6 months post spine surgery, 2nd one, and I am ready to go for this season. After being sidelined for a year from sailing I am ready to get Moondancer ready to go.(2005 26M. Honda 50). We just need some good weather. Melting ice and snow right now but I am sure there is more to come. Over the last few years that I have owned her I have done a few mods and upgrades. I am going to do a few more this Spring. Does anyone have a good way of mounting your dinghy motor to the stern - rails? I dint want to install a motor mount. I have the stern seats and have been looking on line but nothing stands out. I have been stowing the Evinrude 4hp under the v-berth. That is always a Chinese puzzle getting it in and out and might not be the best thing for my back. Any ideas out there?

KB

[kmclemore]

I'm afraid I can't answer your question regarding the dingy motor, as I have neither dingy or dingy motor, but I can certainly commiserate on your back... I'm just coming back from a broken lateral condyle in my knee, and thankfully it's going well so far. Just took my first 5-mile hike in over a year, and managed to do it without knee pain... my back, on the other hand, is killing me, but that's because I've largely been on my butt for 9 months!

[ris]

This is a pic of our 6hp motor we now have a 2.3 hp honda which is 29 lbs instead of 60 lbs that the 6 hp weighed.
This is the way we mounted ours. The mount moves up and down about 8 inches. Not sure if you are looking for a mount like this
or something different. I can get a close up of the mount with no motor if you want one.

[Tsatzsue]

Nice spot!! I am hoping to utilize the stern seat rail. Mounting a bracket on the M would be a bitch and would get in the way of the rudders when up. Thanks for the pic.
KB

[Russ]

I am hoping to utilize the stern seat rail. Mounting a bracket on the M would be a bitch and would get in the way of the rudders when up.

That's what I did. I took a piece of wood to make a motor mount for the stern rail seat. I used 2 u-bolts to attach it to the seat and simply mount the motor to that.

Of course mine is a 2.5 Suzuki outboard and is fairly light. However when installing it on the dinghy, I will attach a line to it and lower it down and reverse to bring it back aboard. I considered using the boom to help, however the boom really isn't long enough. I suppose I could rig something on the boom to swivel over the water and lower/raise it easier.

Motor is mounted on starboard side and Magma grill on the port.

Sorry, this is the best pic I could find. I have the mount in my garage and I'll look for it.

[Tsatzsue]

Very cool. I mounted a tube on the port side for my stern anchor. I'm thinking of putting the dinghy motor on the starboard like you. Lower if possible. I have my VHF antenna on the starboard side by the seat as well. Busy area. Thanks for the feedback.

[OverEasy]

Hi All!

Nice arrangements Ris and Russ!

Ris, does the mount get low enough into the water to use the motor as an auxiliary for your Mac?
I’ve tried practicing paddling our Mac in the past just to see if I could…. (It didn’t work very well ).

If the longer distance cruising works out for us we’ve been contemplating mounting a trolling motor on the stern for the inflatable dingy and slinging a Li Fe battery down to it when needed. It would be a nice thing for us to plan in the capability to use it as an auxiliary should that need ever arise (as the paddling experiment done previously showed the limitations of that approach ).

Best Regards,
Over Easy