Motor Steering Damper Screw
Joe: I don't know if you are having the problem that I am going to describe or not, but we sailed with a sailor one time that had years of experience, that wasn't aware of it, and I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't your problem. There is almost certainly a screw on your motor that will prevent the motor from freely rotating, side-to-side. It is usually under the power head, and has a spring on it. It can be adjusted a little at a time, so that it takes just the amount of force that you want to rotate the motor using it's tiller. This way you can keep the motor centered for motoring the boat straight, but if you need to make the boat turn very sharply, like possibly in a docking situation, you can still rotate the motor. The propeller can still contact the rudder, but it is not something that usually happens accidentally. As I said, I'm not sure if this is the problem that you are describing, but maybe it will help you or someone else. Aldo
