Motor Uphaul

[Abby Normal]

I took my M-25 out for the first time yesterday. I had raised and lowered the motor (6hp 2-stroke Merc) several times when I had it at my house. It was not too bad raising it back up from below on the trailer. Until we were on the water yesterday, I'd never tried to haul it up from the cock pit. My uphaul uses one pulley on the motor rigging, and a cleat on the coaming.Two problems here: one is it takes a lot of effort to get it up. The other is, when it is up, it sure seems like it would be a lot of strain on that cleat and the coaming. I don't want the cleat to eventually pull out and have the motor slam down. I do have a slide tensioner on the motor rigging with a wing nut, but that by itself does not really hold the motor up.Sounds to me like many 25's use 9.9 horse motors, so I'm sure those would be a little heavier.Anyone have any suggestions? I'm thinking of adding a second pulley somewhere on it to make it easier to lift, but what about all the strain on the coaming and cleat?Thanks,Colin

 

[Chris3720]

new mount

Abby, I had the same setup on my '83 M25 except I had a 9.9 2 stroke on it. I replaced the old motor mount with a spring loaded mount from WM. This makes it much easier to lift the motor from inside the cockpit. The added bonus is that it locks in the "up" position thus no strain on the coaming and cleat. One more thought, I do not trailer any distance with the motor on the mount. My own paranoia.ChrisM25 Chara

 

[Abby Normal]

Motor Mount

Hi Chris, thanks for the info. I pulled the boat out to a lake about 40 miles from home and I'm going to dry store it on the trailer until winter when I'm going to bring it to the shop I work at and do a bottom job. I realized after putting it back on the trailer Sunday that I wouldn't want to go any further distance than I did with the motor hanging out there. In fact, I believe I'll take it off prior to bringing it back into town.After "trailer sailing" Sunday and realizing the hassle of getting the boat into and out of the water, I'm realizing real quick why there are a ton of "trailerable" boats in slips at the lake. I'm leaving the mast rigged and only have to drive it about 3/4 of a mile to the launch point, so that part isn't bad, it's waiting in line and then trying to hit the trailer with the limited forward visibility these craft have.The only negative I see to keeping slipped in the lake it is at is the proliferation of Zebra Mussels there.

 

[Cactus Jack]

Tilt Assist

"Whose brain is this?""Abby something...""Abby something?""Abby...Normal"Abby - Are you referring to lifting the motor mount, or are you referring to TILTING the motor on the mount? (Just like you would a motor on a fixed transom.) On my Catalina 25, the pivoting mount doesn't quite get the skeg all the way out of the water, so I need to also tilt it. The effort it took to tilt the motor was killing me, and I broke the top engine cover latch twice.To help, I created a "tilt lever". I drilled a 5/16" hole near the rear edge of the cavitation plate, and attached a 5/16" stainless steel bolt through the hole, with about 2 inches of the threaded end pointing up. I got a 5 foot length of 1/2" galvanized pipe, and put a couple of coats of paint on it, to at least slow down rust/corrosion. I attached a small block of wood to the pipe, such that with one end of the pipe resting over the steel bolt, the wood kinda rests in a recessed area on the back of the engine. Now, I can grab the pipe at the top, and use it as a lever to tilt the engine. It REALLY saves on back strain, and let's me get the skeg completely out of the water!Hope this may help,Jack

 

[Abby Normal]

Hi CJ,My wife and I watched that movie just the other night... a true classic.Anyhow, I was talking about hauling the mount up. Tilting is quite simple, but due to the geometry of it, I have to remember to tilt it back to the proper angle prior to dropping the mount down, or I don't have enough room to tilt the motor forward to get it to release and tilt to proper position.Once the motor is hauled up when we are under sail, I do have to tilt it to get the prop all the way out.I think I will likely get one of the spring loaded mounts this winter while I've got the boat at the shop.Oh yeah, after launching, retrieving, and trailering on Saturday, we broke down and got a slip yesterday for the rest of the season! That will cut out 30 minutes on both ends of our sail!

 

[Tom]

coaming cleats

I have a spring assist mount on my M25, and a Johnson 6hp 2-stroke. When I bought the boat and left the marina, I saw how the motor was bouncing up and down and the transom was flexing, so I removed the outboard and put in the cockpit floor. After I started leaving the boat in a dry slip, rigged and ready to launch it was too big of a pain to remove and reinstall the motor, so I rigged a single pully on the motor mount, tied a line to the coaming cleat passed it through the pully and back to the cleat. After raising the motor on the spring mount, I pull the slack out and cleat it tight. Now the motor does'nt bounce and the transom does'nt flex. I felt comfortable hauling the boat the mile or so from the ramp to the dry slip. It worked so well, I bought a heavy stainless cam cleat and mounted next to the horn cleat on the coaming. Now the line goes from the original cleat, to the pulley and up to the cam cleat. It is much faster to raise and lower and very secure. I would worry more about ripping out the transom from the motor bouncing than the cleat pulling out! Adding the cam cleat was fun, took out the foam flotation blocks under the cockpit and sent in my son to hold the wrench while I tightened up the bolts. You could replace the wood backing plates under the horn cleat if it is rotten or loose. Piece of cake! (could be worse, could be raining)! Good Luck!

 

[Abby Normal]

Thanks for the response!

I think I will look at the geometry of the motor mount and see where I need to add a spring on each side and I believe I can do what I need to with it. I don't fit well up under the cockpit, so anything I can do without messing with transom bolts is a bonus to me.

 

[Abby Normal]

Thanks Rusty

Rusty,Pretty good timing, I discovered the rail mount hardware at WM on Monday and that got my mind to clicking on this. I like your set-up because it sure spreads a lot of weight around the coaming instead of one spot on the cleat.I'm sure the Admiral is pleased!