amytom wrote:The old motors were easily adapted to allow fresh water flush. Some used the flush fitting on the lower unit with a hose strapped to the leg. Others drilled and put a fitting on the housing over the thermostat with a hose leading out from under the cowling.
amytom. Thanks for the info. Even though we've had diesels on a number of boats we've owned, I like the outboards for a number of reasons. One of them, I haven't seen mentioned on this site or any other, has to do with cruising in waters which have a lot of lobster or crab pots. That's the case here in Maine.
Our IP 40 had a full keel with a protected prop and so we could motor through hundreds of closely compacted lobster bouys and never worry about getting our prop wrapped up in lobster warp. I had a previous boat which didn't have a protected prop and had to dive in to pretty cold water and cut lobster warp wrapped around our prop, a number of times.
You can have "spurs" mounted to the shaft just forward of the prop which will cut the warp most of the time, but I've always had a bad feeling about cutting the lines to these traps, because it hurts the livelihood of lobstermen. Not to mention the disconnected trap at the bottom continues to catch lobsters with no possibility of being retrieved.
So the outboards being mounted forward and inside the hulls have little to no chance of catching the props as they would a prop on a sail drive or shaft located beneath the hull.
Understandably, you don't see many or hardly any catamarans cruising the New England coast, because cat owners view their boats has warm water and warm climate boats. And my wife and I would/will love to cruise the Bahamas and the lower Caribbean.
When we cruised the East Coast, there were 5 areas which stood out as highlights of our cruising. Those were Maine, the area south of Cape Cod (Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, Elizabeth Islands,and Narragansett Bay), Chesapeake Bay, The North Carolina sounds and barrier islands, and Miami south (Biscayne Bay and the keys). Of these five areas, Maine and the area just south of Cape Cod really stand out in the quality of the steady winds (Florida is the best for winds), and quality of harbors, anchorages, and things to do and see.
I remember a survey done some years ago in either Cruising World, Yachting, or Sail Magazine among famous yachtsmen. They listed the Mediterranean and the Caribbean as among the top three favorites, but Maine was number one. They were mostly American yachtsmen and so that probably had a lot to do with it.
But it's too bad more catamaran sailors don't head north in the summer months, except to maybe the Great Lakes. PDQ's with outboards would be especially suited to cruise the Maine Coast, which is a fabulous cruising ground.