[Rhodes22-list] More motor choice questions

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Bob,
 
In response to your post to the list, we are only one step ahead of you on  
the newbee curve. We got our boat in April and we got the UPP.  We  have a 9.9 
Yamaha 4 stroke and it’s worked well.  We got a refurbished ‘89  boat from 
General Boats and I think we got the original motor ( it’s an ‘89  motor).  The 
motor is still cranking away, no problems.  I plan to  have the motor 
refurbished this winter.
 
Re the remote:  A picture of the General Boats tiller mounted remote  control 
is attached (hopefully), the remote assembly(throttle & gear  shift) is 
screwed into the top back of the tiller.  It’s very  accessible and  works well.  
One comment regarding your mounting  the remote on either side of the cockpit 
as opposed to the tiller:  sometimes you’re seated on the port side, other 
times the starboard, and other  times standing peering above the cabin top, but you
’re always attached to the  tiller when you’re steering.  The important 
thing is to be able to reach  the controls from wherever you are.  If the helmsman 
always has the tiller,  and the tiller includes the remote, the helmsman has 
access to the  remote. In some cases the ability to move about the boat and 
still access  the remote might be critical; for example, in a man-overboard  
situation the helmsman will want to stand/sit wherever is best to  maintain 
visibility and use the remote for maneuvering - this  can  be a contradiction if 
the remote is mounted on either side of the cockpit,  but it works if the remote 
is on the tiller. We find that having the remote  on the tiller works well.
 
One possible downside to the tiller mounted remote we have is that I  think 
you have to unscrew the entire assembly to take the remote & motor off  for 
servicing, I don't think you can take the motor off separately.  That’s  harder 
than just taking the motor off its mount.  If there were another  remote that 
detached/reattached from the boat easily, or that detached from the  motor 
easily, it might be a plus.
 
Our tiller mounted remote does not interfere with the captain seats or  
anything else at all.  There are no interferences with the General  Boats solution.
 
The 9.9 hp has served us very will to date, no problem bucking winds and  
currents on the Chesapeake.  But then, the currents are not high on the  
Chesapeake, to my knowledge, and our single biggest use for the motor has been  when 
there is no wind as opposed to bucking the wind.  But if we got in a  jam, the 
power is there and it's comforting to know that 9.9 hp was  available.  My 
suggestion is that you plan for your worst case (Pugeot  Sound and the San Juans).
 
I find the General Boat tiller/motor linkage to be very useful.  One  area 
where we always use the motor is around our slip, and the rudder/tiller  working 
together give us much more steering authority in those  situations.  I 
recommend it.  The acid test is not how well you motor  home with/without the 
linkage, it's your maneuvering needs near and at your  marina, launch point, etc.
 
One thing to watch out for when the motor and tiller are not interconnected  
is turning the motor prop into the rudder, or conversely.  I imagine the  prop 
will chew your rudder - that’s one mistake I haven’t made yet.  I  don't 
think that will happen if your rudder is down, but if it were 1/2 down, it  
might.  With the linkage in place, I don't think you don’t have to worry  about 
that, but with the linkage you will have to worry about inadvertently  raising 
the motor with the linkage attached because it appears to me that will  break 
the linkage - with an electric lift (the UPP) that oversight is possible,  you 
just hit the switch and whooops (I haven't broken the linkage - yet).
 
Other trivia: If you get the UPP, you may be compromising your  ability to 
make an emergency manual start.  I haven’t tried a manual start,  but I think 
the motor mount is going to be in the way.  It still may be  possible, I don’t 
know.
 
Our UPP lift does not lift the motor entirely out of the water, it comes  
close but the tip of the prop is still in the water.  You have limited  vertical 
travel with the UPP lift, and it may not be enough for your  motor.    
 
If, for whatever reason, your motor is up and you can't get it down (UPP  
lift is stuck up), you've got a problem.  If you read the UPP literature  the 
simple solution is to pull out the clutch on the electric winch that's in  the 
laz and the motor will descend.  What's omitted is that to do that you  first 
have to un-weight the winch spindle to free up the clutch - otherwise  it can't 
be pulled out.  Un-weighting the clutch might be  possible, if you were to put 
a line on the motor and take up the weight on one  of the boats winches - or 
perhaps more realistically stand above the motor and  lift it (weight is about 
100 lbs) while another party on your boat reached into  the laz to pull out 
the clutch (which is not easy).  Alternatively, you  could reach into the laz 
and cut the webbing on the winch lift and let the  motor fall down (there are 
stops on the bottom of the lift that should  prevent the motor falling off the 
boat entirely), or let it down slowly - but  that's a destructive solution 
that ultimately has it's own problem (you're going  to need to replace and 
reattach the webbing).  Realistically, if  the motor were to become stuck up while 
you were on the water, I think you  would have an interesting problem.  
 
If the above seems like a litany of cautions re the UPP, please don’t  be put 
off.  I’m trying to summarize what we’ve found out, and I tend to  recall 
the issues - which I think is what you are probably interested in.   Really, it’
s a good product and I’m sure you will enjoy the UPP if you get it -  you hit 
the switch and it happens, that's nice.   Also, we’re very  happy with, and 
wholeheartedly recommend, the Yamaha remote mounted on the  tiller and the 
tiller/OB linkage.
 
Good luck with your selections, I really don't think you can go  wrong.
 
Dave
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