My first boat with a saildrive was my bavaria. I cant say enough bad things about the design. While i am sure it is less expensive/more efficient for the manufacturers....the ongoing maintenance is a real pain in the ****.
Basicly you have to pull the boat every year to avoid water incursions in my experience which is a costly nuissance - I should be able to get away with pulling it every other year.
I am now on my second round of milky gear oil. So whiile i wait to pull it I wasted a hundred or so dollars pumping the milk out (by hand) and filling with fresh clean gear oil to minimize water impact. I also get to worry about potential damage and $$$$ if something more is wrong.
Im sure it is replace the seals or some other (hopefully) relatively minor problem but the only way to avoid it is to pull the boat every year. Plus all the parts down there just make me plain nervous...way too much stuff under there that can break/malfunction with NO WAY to access/fix etc. without pulling it. The practical issues of that are terrible.
Please pile on if you agree since Bavaria is actively reading this forum.
Basicly you have to pull the boat every year to avoid water incursions in my experience which is a costly nuissance - I should be able to get away with pulling it every other year.
I am now on my second round of milky gear oil. So whiile i wait to pull it I wasted a hundred or so dollars pumping the milk out (by hand) and filling with fresh clean gear oil to minimize water impact. I also get to worry about potential damage and $$$$ if something more is wrong.
Im sure it is replace the seals or some other (hopefully) relatively minor problem but the only way to avoid it is to pull the boat every year. Plus all the parts down there just make me plain nervous...way too much stuff under there that can break/malfunction with NO WAY to access/fix etc. without pulling it. The practical issues of that are terrible.
Please pile on if you agree since Bavaria is actively reading this forum.