Sailing dinghy to trawler conversion

I have had a Naiad 18 (NAIAD 18 - sailboatdata https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/naiad-18/) for the past 3 years. I have sailed it a little bit. The unstayed mast (wood/alum combo) is just to heavy for trailerable daysailer. I would like to convert it to a little trawler to fish and be on the water (St-Lawrence River in Montreal) as it is not working for me as a sailboat. I already have a Grampian 26 in the water at the marina for my sailing days.

So far , I have rebuilt the deck and the transom. She was left under the weather uncovered for a long time but previous owners. I have also patch the transom to reattach the rudder.

I am faced with a couple of difficutlies. The rudder is the first I need to figure out. I need to make the rudder into a kickup or pull up rudder so it can be lowered in the water. Then I need to figure out a way to attach an outboard in a way that the prop will be deep enough to move water to propulse the boat.

Naiad has a lovely hull and she is in my garage as a long term project.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

Hi Svey262, you can offset the rudder to the side, or have one rudder either side of the OB motor. Put limiters so the rudder doesn't get carved out by the prop. With an OB you may not need a rudder anyway.

 

There’s room for an outboard well aft of the daggerboard box.
The drawing appears to show a kick up rudder.