[Rhodes22-list] Electric Trolling Motors

[john Belanger]

my worry has to do with the shaft length. the best way to get the right answer is to borrow or rent a motor and hang it. do you already have adaquate battery power aboard? john b

DCLewis1 at aol.com wrote:  
John, Ed, Mike, Robert & Michael,

Thanks for your input re electric trolling motors as an emergency back up. 

John & Ed, Perhaps I mis-communicated. I’m not looking for an electric 
prop, or an electric outboard (if there is such a thing). I’m looking to us 
the fishing trolling motors that are commercially available. There was some 
good info in your references, thanks.

Mike, I’m not sure I followed your using the EM version of MinnKota’s 
electric tolling motor. My concept was to mount a separate trolling motor - only 
when needed - between the swim ladder and the rudder. I’m not sure the 
MinnKota mount can do that because of the lack of free space on the transom, but 
that was the concept. Your input re what the MinnKota could do was useful, 
thank you.

Robert, I concluded you actually made it work on the Potomac, but not for an 
R22. My notion for a river like the Potomac is to use the motor strictly as 
an emergency backup to get to a shore - where you may not be able to pick 
which shore if the wind is blowing the wrong way. At least it would reliably 
get you and your passengers off the river. I concluded you agreed that it 
might work in that application - but I’m still not sure something like the 
MinnKota would fit on the transom of the R22 - there’s so much other stuff on the 
stern.

On the Chesapeake such a motor might be useful to get back into the marina, 
if you were close to the marina ( a couple of miles) and there was no wind. 
But I can also see situations, where it wouldn’t save the day, i.e. wind 
blowing off shore and it’s multiple miles to the other shore.

Michael, I fully agree with your statement “it’s a sailboat, use the sails, 
get an anchor and a Tows-R-Us card”. But it’s common on the Chesapeake to 
have no wind in mid-summer - and when that happens motoring back is a fact of 
life. If the motor fails and there’s no wind you’re stranded. I’m a 
little antsy about Tows-R-Us in terms of needing them, waiting for them, etc 
-maybe it’s because I haven’t used their service to date. 

But I guess the real issue is that no one appears to have tried it on a 
Rhodes 22. It sounds like a no-power/low-power solution that might, or might 
not, be useful in some situations - particularly no wind situations, but I’m 
still not sure it can fit on the transom and that it won’t chew up the rudder. 

Another approach might be to get a small backup OB, maybe 2 to 4 HP 
2-stroke - but as with the trolling motor, I’m not sure it would fit on the transom 
given all the other stuff that’s there.

Maybe it’s because I’m new at this, but it seems to me that on the 
Chesapeake your OB is more than a back up to the sails - it’s what brings you home 
when the the wind dies. And I just feel a little vulnerable with no backup 
system for my ‘89 Yamaha. 

Thank you all for your inputs. I may have to get my hands on a trolling 
motor and make some mounting measurements.

Dave 
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