The Motor

June 19 was summer sailstice day; the Saturday nearest summer solstice to celibrate sailing around the world. We got on the water, but not with sails up. More on that in a bit

One thing most sailors are just loath to is drill holes into the boat, even for mounting stuff. However, in my choice of motors, a 6HP is the largest specified. After shopping around, settled in on a Tohatsu 6HP sail power because it comes with an 60w alternator and rectifier to charge batteries. This motor version is only in a 20 and 25 in shaft lengths. I had this motor lift for another boat that did not get utilized. Was going to craigslist it, but after working through trial install configs, found that it would work with a 20 in shaft motor. So far so good. Ordered the sail power Tohatsu. The only thing left was to plan and drill mounting holes, and use plenty of Scotch 5200 marine sealant. The Astus has those plywood veneers for a smaller motor to clamp to. The demo boat had a Merc 4 hp clamped and that seem to work ok. With the lift, I can get a water bucket on a short stool positioned to rinse the motor. Here shown after firing up this puppy for the first time.

We took the boat out on Sat 6/19. Raised the mast. Launched at the neighborhood ramp and putzed around in upper bay. Was going to raise the sail but the mast was lacking some hardware to do that easily. Wife wanted to fish more that sail, so it was a good first outing, at idle speed and at anchor in some spots, good time to break in the new motor.

Notice that the cockpit has a bench cubby where the gas tank can go starboard. Port side cubby holds fenders, dock lines and more stuff. Boarding ladder folds up; nice for pulling out of the water from a swim. The floor jack is not optional equipment, but used to raise the trailer aft cross piece for jack stands; not to flip the boat up when not connected to the truck.

Now waiting on the the missing mast hardware.