fitting a fixed surface drive

[seamy]

hi folks, wanted any opinions on alignment Im currently fitting my own fixed surface drive and was wondering about offsetting the shaft to the left or right to counteract some torque steer,the prop is a RH prop,any thoughts please

[ted655]

Single drives should be left hand props, just for that reason. There is usually a small trim skeg somewhere on the drive that is turned slightly to fine tune tracking during sea trails.
Keep the drive centered on the keel line.

[Village_Idiot]

To elaborate on this...

Back in the days before time, and even after that, boat pilots steered their boats from the right-hand side of the boat, which is to say, from the "steering board". Additionally, they would navigate from their helm on that side of the boat, using the stars to find their way. Hence, the name "starboard" for the right side of the boat.

Since the helm was positioned on the right side of the boat, the left side of the boat remained empty and uncluttered and became storage space for cargo. When the pilot steered the boat into port, he would line up the left side of the boat for easy loading/unloading of the cargo. Hence, the name "port" for the left side of the boat.

Since the helm was positioned on the right side of the boat, this carried on into modern powerboat design, and propeller designers, in their infinite wisdom, designed the props to rotate in such a fashion that the weight of the helm and pilot would counteract the torque-steer from the prop. Works out well in an empty powerboat.

[ted655]

Actually, a left turn prop counteracts the torque & crank rotation of the "single" , center mounted engine.