Dunking Outboards

[Yetii]

I do not have a sailboat yet, but have been lurking here soaking up the knowledge. One thing that I would not have thought of is the tendency for an outboard powered sailboat to lift and then dunk the outboard. Makes sense if I had thought about it. Water ingestion = bad.

So, I was watching a mud bog motor sports event on tv and all the vehicles had raised snorkels through which the engine could safely breathe. The it struck me that something similar could be done to enable even a long shaft outboard to be mounted lower without hydrolocking it during use.

Is anyone aware if this has been done? Is it a crazy idea?

Just curious.

[liquidice]

Originally Posted by Yetii

I do not have a sailboat yet, but have been lurking here soaking up the knowledge. One thing that I would not have thought of is the tendency for an outboard powered sailboat to lift and then dunk the outboard. Makes sense if I had thought about it. Water ingestion = bad.



So, I was watching a mud bog motor sports event on tv and all the vehicles had raised snorkels through which the engine could safely breathe. The it struck me that something similar could be done to enable even a long shaft outboard to be mounted lower without hydrolocking it during use.



Is anyone aware if this has been done? Is it a crazy idea?



Just curious.

Sounds cool to me.
I raced dinghies as a kid and through high school and then lacked the opportunity to sail for years. Now I have a 25' catalina Capri and want to eventually graduate to a blue water cruiser.

I am on my 2nd season with my boat and respect your lurking styles. The repository of knowledge here is astounding and I have learned a ton. My boat has a 5.5 hp air cooled tanaka aquabug. It has performed well. It is subject to the occasional dunking but seems to shake it off right away after skipping a beat. Then I sit more forward and have any aboard do the same to bring the motor ip some

I guess for me so long as my motor runs, I am loathe to interfere with the configuration. A snorkel does sound wise, however! Cool idea. I'll put something into that kickstarter.

[Dave_S]

Like this.