Drowning my outboard: hunt for red october

[nekochan]

hola
i sold my perfectly good fully renovated newport 27 for a catalina 27 and here i start all over again! I must be stupid.
Its a 1984 catalina with the transom cut out for an outboard.
the outboard is a 4 stroke Yamaha 9.9 high thrust.
My main problem is that if I go over 4 knots on my motor my outboard looks like a submarine with the water outport and the exhaust fully in the water.

1) I imagine that that is bad for my outboard?
2) Solutions? I read some people actually patching up the hole and putting a mounting bracket on either sides of the transom, not where the patch is since it is not sturdy enough. on my old boat I could just move the motor up on the bracket. Is this the only way? I can't imagine the manufacturer did not anticipate this problem, what was their original plan?
3) my outboard is so big it barely fits the hole do others have this problem, i can hardly lift the stupid thing up in the horizontal position
4) the boat has a mysterious leak from above on the port side, maybe along the seams?

All solutions are welcome.

 

[Ravac]

Hi nekochan,

I have the identical problem. 1980 C27 with the OB motor well in the transom. The PO mounted a Mercury 9.9 "Bigfoot" on the boat. Huge motor for the boat.

One thing I noticed last year (I've only owned the boat for two years now) when the yard mounted the OB, they had to adjust the trim pin to tip the motor slightly forward so that the rudder wouldn't hit the OB drive unit. As a result, the stern is driven into the water as the throttle is increased. Maybe you have a similar problem?

My other issue is that I can't tip the motor out of the water because the huge motor fairing won't clear the upper part of the opening. I've also read that others have altered the transom opening to fit the bigger motors or glassed them up and mounted a kicker bracket to the side. I'm toying with the idea of a power tilt bracket. The bracket would move the motor aft about 6", which may give clearance for the fairing to tip forward so I can get the thing out of the water while sailing and at dock. I'd also be able to trim the motor better since it will be farther away from the rudder too. I'd also like to add remote controls for the motor so I don't need to twist around and bend over every time I need to adjust the throttle or gears.

Has anyone had any luck using a power tilt/trim bracket on the C27?

As far as the leak on the port side nekochan, have you checked the stanchion/pulpit backing plates?

 

[Lookout]

Idea

I expect that tilting the motor may help. We had to do that on a boat to solve the same problem.
This is just an idea.You may not have to close the opening. I have owned boats where the motor is offset to one side of the transom. It might be worth a try before going to the time of closing the port hole.

 

[nekochan]

sawzaw time

yeah the previous owners solution to having a pig of a motor was to cut about 3 inches off the top of the hole in the transom and cut a big ******** in the lazerette hatch. its crazy cause now i imagine following sea can come through the big hole in the hatch.

As far as tilting the motor, I did have to tilt the motor quite a bit to keep it from hitting the rudder. I did not realize that that would increase the amount in which the transom digs into the water. Now that I think about it it makes sense, I guess I can try to lower it a hole and see if that helps. or I can just go without steering

as far as controls for the outboard in the cockpit, i highly recommend it. It is very convenient and you don't have to do the outboard yoga trying to hold the tiller and the throttle at the same time


As far as mounting the motor on either side of the hole in the transom, I did read a few people that did that and had success. I guess I could just do that and put my dingy motor in the outboard hole.

What the hell was catalina thinking? oh I guess they weren't

 

[Backcut]

Hi, you might try putting a backing plate, plywood works great. Put it against the transom so it puts your motor further out when you attach it.

 

[tomfoolery]

When Catalina created the 27 outboard engines were usually two stroke and small. I had a 15hp Johnson 2 stroke on my 27 in the 80's and it worked like a charm in the outboard openning. Guess that's progress....