Converting a small sailboat to a pilothouse motorboat

This is a thread I've perused many times, but so many of the discussions are rife with disinformation that it needs to be revisited by those who have actually accomplished it successfully, rather than those who weigh in with absolutely no knowledge other than the same tired disinformation people seem to want to continuously repeat. My first conversion I owned for 14 years and had a blast with. My current one is absolutely fun and set up to do exactly that which I intended, very successfully.

 

I wish to list some truths about such conversions.
There are sailboats with better characteristics for conversion than others.
A keel, at sea, induces more motion from wave action, creates a tripping hazard off waves, and creates unnecessary drag. A keel is best kept to just sufficient to provide easy steerage. Sailboats, good for conversion can be easily driven above hull speed by adequate power and be very economical at hull speed or somewhat above. My 23' boat with 18' waterline will do 8 knots with a fuel injected Yamaha T25.
I consider the most dangerous position of such a boat to be returning to port through breaking waves and view the vectored thrust of a lock to lock steering outboard to be a necessary safety feature. That and the extra weight of an inboard diesel negate it's choice, even with the Diesel's added efficiency.
My T25 slides vertically in an aluminum tower, which also supports the radar, through a mid- cockpit well.
The mid-cockpit well provides much less squat than a stern motor. The motor has pinned positions for; in use, out of the water while docked, and elevated to where any maintenance can be done to the motor, including pulling the lower leg and changing the impeller, propeller, oils, or unwrapping lines. A tray sliding under the motor completely blocks objects from falling through the well as well as catches any errant fluids.
Having experienced well over sixty years of almost constant boating, I attest that my present one is very sea kindly in respect to most other boats of similar length and beam.
I removed the original 4' lead keel, replacing it with a near full length glassed 2-1/2" rib for ease of directional maintenance.
Some of the lead was secured in the interior.
The pilothouse was built of sandwiched foam and designed to minimize weight and windage.
I view this as a large kayak, with a cabin, with lots of storage, fully self bailing(with one scupper, called a motor well, over a square foot of area), small, tough windows, and a Kraken ocean trolling motor, on the bow, with spotlock.

 

Welcome to the Forum Bonkers (I love the name of your boat!)
That is an interesting arrangement which you have for the O/B motor on Bonkers - do you have some more detailed photos of it please?
When you are underway, do you usually helm from inside the pilothouse, or out in the cockpit?
The wee pilothouse looks like it may be a tad claustrophobic, but maybe it is deceptive, and is a Tardis inside.
And who is the cute clinker fibreglass boat with the pilothouse - is this Bonkers II?

 

Hi, Banjansailor.
I set up Bonkers with a Garmin Reactor 40 Kicker electric autopilot and normally steer with the wireless remote control from anywhere in or on the boat. I also have hydraulic steering with a wheel inside the pilothouse, which can be reached while standing, on deck, at the back of the cabin. Also as a third method of steering is a tiller that sleeves into an attachment on top of the T25, and detaches with the push of a button for storage, just inside the cabin door. I appreciate redundancy. The 703 Yamaha remote throttle/shift is easily actuated from inside or outside the cabin.
The pilothouse allows two men to stand side by side with two people seated in front of them athwort ships. Even with small windows, the view is excellent, as the eyes can be within inches of the windows. Across the dash are two 9" Garmin mfds with the VHF between them. The autopilot came with a throttle actuator that mounts in the outboard and is controlled by the remote or mfds, but I didn't bother to install it as the 703 is so accessible.
A board drops into place over the engine when it's down, providing more aft cockpit seating and providing easy passage from front to back of the cockpit, through the radar tower.
The Kraken trolling motor has it's own wireless remote, autopilot, and spotlock. The Kraken will do over four knots almost instantly and I have enough lithium battery capacity to probably go well over 30 miles at 2-1/2 to 3 knots as a backup to the Yamaha T25. All day at spotlock hasn't taken me down below 90 percent charged on just one of the 36 volt batteries. A small sailboat without much keel is so much more efficient than even a long, narrow planing hull. I can go to sea, catch a limit of fish, and return to port on 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of gas.
The other boat, I had for 14 years and was an absolute blast. I named it Bug, built the aluminum pilothouse and aluminum motor cover. The inside and outside steering wheels were on the same shaft and the inside and outside shifts and throttle pivoted on the same shafts. It was powered with a Yamaha T 9.9 extra- long shaft that steered lock to lock and pivoted out of the water through a slot in the stern.

 

I'll post pictures of the outboard engine lift and mid cockpit well as soon as I have a bit of time. That arrangement has so many benefits it's amazing. That is a glassed on fish box on the back of Bonkers.
Bug was a Skipper 20 fiberglass boat.
Bonkers is a Ranger 22 which is 22-1/2' on deck and with the Kraken trolling motor sticking out a bit, I have to pay for 23' for moorage.

 

Dash of Bonkers. The cabin is much wider at the back than at the front.

 

Bonkers prior to Kraken installation.
Columns with winches on the trailer allows me to lift Bonkers, tilt, move forward or backward, clean, bottom paint, etc.

 

Stern of Bug showing the slot through which the outboard could pivot completely free of the water.

 

The aluminum cabin I built for my inboard/outboard boat previous to Bug.

 

Bonkers at sea off Oregon, out of Bandon on a nice day last summer.