visited my boat today

[BruceW]

I had put her away wet, brought a bunch of wet clothes, etc, home, and got all washed and dried, and wanted to restock my foulie duffel bag, check the sails, etc. Oh, and I had left my gas tanks lashed to the shrouds on deck, and wanted to remove them, bring them home, etc.

Found that my main sail was essentially dry, I raised it and shook a few drops off, put it away again fast because rain was coming. Didn't have time to bring the furler out to work on it before the deluge.

Only thing I found amiss was the handle to my motor mounting bracket; it's gone! When we raised the mount, one of those end caps came off, and we thought we put the handle and both end caps on top of the motor cover. I meant to put them below and got sidetracked and forgot.

Dang, I'll bet it fell below when the guy took his gas tank back (he probably didn't see it) and went out the scupper.

So, I'll see about replacing it with a bolt with locknuts on each end. Not as smooth, unless I wrap it with some neoprene I may have laying around.

Other ideas?

Anyway, got my refund for the "bad" motor, and will put some other money with it and buy a new motor, probably the 6 hp Tohatsu Sailpro with 25" shaft.

Funny, Keith Scott doesn't like the 25", nor the special prop.  He's concerned the motor won't tilt up out of the water; not sure what he doesn't like about the prop.

[Shawn]

The Tohatsu clears the water easily, even when heeled over.

The prop is what makes the engine work well on a sailboat. The prop on a regular 6hp Tohatsu is pitched for a planning boat. As such when used on a displacement hull the low boat speed prevents the engine from reaching its power band which means it isn't delivering full power. The engine struggles to move the boat and has a lot of vibration as it is turning slower than it should be while at full throttle.

The elephant ears high thrust prop (what comes on the Sailpro) is pitched for a displacement hull. It allows the engine to get into its power band and drives a displacement hull much better.

I am one of the first here (maybe the first) that put the Sailpro on a 23. When I got it it was a relatively new option from Tohatsu. I found numerous threads on other forums about how the 6hp Tohatsu (non-Sailpro) didn't work well on displacement hulls. There was one great thread where a guy was measuring RPM with the stock prop on a 25ish foot sailboat. He was *hating* the engine. Tohatsu makes two versions of the 6" pitch high thrust prop. This guy tried the non-Sailpro version and it improved things but still wasn't great. Finally he ended up with the SailPro prop and his opinion of the engine changed.

If you drive a stick shift it is like the difference starting out in 1st gear vs. 5th gear. 5th gear lets you go faster but it harder to get going. If you can't get above 6mph (hull speed) first gear is more appropriate than 5th. Same thing with the high thrust prop.

Shawn

[BruceW]

Shawn,

I have read a lot about this prop on here and your summary pretty well says it all. I appreciate your going through all the points.

I'm fairly well convinced, and the usage of people means a lot.

Looks like I'll have the money to order it by tomorrow.

[Shawn]

You will be pleased with the Sailpro. It is a great engine and the newer version has the shifter on the front which would be really nice. My old Johnson 8hp had that and the side mounted shifter on the original Sailpro is harder to reach. Word of advice... don't overfill the crankcase. I did that one time and it caused the oil to foam and get up into the PCV which feeds into the carb. From there the oil fouled the plug and ran lousy. Totally my fault but worth the warning.

Shawn

[Bob23]

...and as JT will attest, they don't run well on diesel! 
B23

[jthatcher]

ouch..  Bob beat me to it!       indeed, I was admonished by the  Tohotsu dealer for trying to run the diesel through my engine ( a mistake of course)    that was after he had already  raked me over the coals for bringing him an engine that i purchased over the internet   -    all in good fun, mind you.    he was a good guy,  and he took time to really get the engine purring after the carb had been cleaned out.     And, the engine performed very well the rest of the summer.   jt

[Bob23]

Sorry, JT: Couldn't resist! When my Miss Nissan gives up the ghost, I'll buy a Sailpro...heard much good about them and I really liked JT's when I saw it this summer.
Bob23

[brackish]

Bob, easy mistake to make.   I was on a delivery crew when the owner of the boat to be delivered filled one of the two diesels tanks with water.  Inexplicably, that did not work too well.

[BruceW]

I am sure I could make that mistake too.

I'm going to try to be very careful about initial fill of oil. I could only find a quart to buy, so I'll have to be careful with not overfilling.

I thought about using some kind of suction bulb to get oil from the quart, and then squeezing the bulb to put the oil in a little at a time. I saw a turkey baster that showed the amount of ounces in a fill. I wonder if that would work. It was 10 bucks, so I didn't get that one. Not that I mind the 10 bucks if it works; I just hate throwing a tenner away on a dumb idea, if it is that.

[Shawn]

Just get a plastic measuring cup and a funnel. Fill the measuring cup to the required amount of oil and then use it and the funnel to fill the crankcase.

Shawn

[BruceW]

Duh! (smacks head) I coulda had a v-8! Simple solution. I have the funnel, so I'll get the measuring cup that is graduated for ounces, and vee-ola!

[gfspencer]

The Tohatsu clears the water easily, even when heeled over.

The prop is what makes the engine work well on a sailboat. The prop on a regular 6hp Tohatsu is pitched for a planning boat. As such when used on a displacement hull the low boat speed prevents the engine from reaching its power band which means it isn't delivering full power. The engine struggles to move the boat and has a lot of vibration as it is turning slower than it should be while at full throttle.

The elephant ears high thrust prop (what comes on the Sailpro) is pitched for a displacement hull. It allows the engine to get into its power band and drives a displacement hull much better.

I am one of the first here (maybe the first) that put the Sailpro on a 23. When I got it it was a relatively new option from Tohatsu. I found numerous threads on other forums about how the 6hp Tohatsu (non-Sailpro) didn't work well on displacement hulls. There was one great thread where a guy was measuring RPM with the stock prop on a 25ish foot sailboat. He was *hating* the engine. Tohatsu makes two versions of the 6" pitch high thrust prop. This guy tried the non-Sailpro version and it improved things but still wasn't great. Finally he ended up with the SailPro prop and his opinion of the engine changed.

If you drive a stick shift it is like the difference starting out in 1st gear vs. 5th gear. 5th gear lets you go faster but it harder to get going. If you can't get above 6mph (hull speed) first gear is more appropriate than 5th. Same thing with the high thrust prop.

Shawn

How long is your shaft?

[BruceW]

The Sailpro is a 25" shaft.  On low settings, it tilts but is too low for the prop to be out of the water due to the length; on high settings, there isn't room to tilt.

I'm resolved to re-do the mount. I'll probably raise it back to original height, which looks like the right place for it.

[skip1930]

I believe when I drag the boat out of winter storage I'll take my replaced and junk aluminum rudder and saw cut four new flat bars for the engine mount, thus eliminating the wood block. [which was just an experiment last year].

Note that the rudder was not waxed and has grass growing on it's plastic.

skip.

[BruceW]

Skip,

The longer arms seems like a cool idea; for me, with the super long shaft on the motor I got, I believe I'll just make the smaller change of raising the motor mount back to the height it used to be at before the PO lowered it.

Bruce