Shrouds question

For maneuvering in close quaters the prop certainly is not ideally posiitioned, but on the monohulls we had (Pouvreau 11.30 & Elan 410) I would gladly have traded their under-cockpit engine for one centrally mounted. & the saildrive of the Elan was always on the back of my mind: it made no problems in the 2 years we had the boat, but the possibility of a leaking shaftseal & water in the SD, something that one hears a lot about, was a nightmare.
I guess the engine will be in the way under the tabele (is there enough room for one's legs?), to us it would still have been a much better installation!

 

There are thousands of owners who would like an engine with better access and this example seems ideal from a maintenance point of view.The idea of using the rotating shaft for generation occasionally crops up and seems like a useful thing except that the few reports from people who have tried it have indicated that the drag from the cutless bearing and stuffing box have a significant negative influence on the output,while slowing the boat quite significantly.The dedicated hydro-generators don't suffer from this and contribute useful top ups to the system.Without a bank of propulsion batteries the latest generation of solar panels can keep the domestic batteries topped up if one doesn't get too carried away with gadgets and appliances.

I have to admit to a little surprise at learning that somebody actually wants to gain experience of working with composites.Most people regard the topic as something involving smelly and sticky resins combined with fibres that make itching a near certainty and consequently leave the job to the people that have been through the learning process.A desire to learn is a positive thing but I would recommend doing as much learning as possible on components that aren't vital to remaining afloat and then advancing to the more critical items.

 

I don't know about others,but its like 50% of interest in sailboats for me, as in everything, I like to fix, mod, repair, tune stuff.
For example when I was in Thailand-I was so bored, I bought a broken motorcycle and fixed, just for fun, barely used it afterwards