Sail Drive on Bavaria 40 CC

[Charlie]

Does anyone have any experience with the sail drives installed on the Bavaria boats? I am looking at a 2001 Bavaria 40 CC with an Volvo 50HP engine and a Sail drive. Any special maintenance considerations? I am not familar with the sail drives. What are the pro's/cons?Charlie

 

[Ken Johnson]

Advantage - Boat Builder

Saildrives seem to be a trend in the industry, showing up on more new models each year.The largest advantage is for the yacht builder, because the engine, drive, transmission, and prop are a pre-assembled, aligned "drop-in" subassembly. That saves costs.For the boat owner; maintenance is about the same; you can only change trans oil with the boat out of the water, you must watch the seal around the drive and change it every 7-years (max),you get NO water into the boat (unless the seal fails - in which case you have a serious problem), and there is slightly less prop walk in reverse.The prop is lower, below the boat, and well forward of the rudder with a saildrive - not far behind the keel.

 

[Graham Wood]

Sail Drive maintenance Bav 40

Sail drives are well documented in many boating mags.. In the UK the best is "Practical Boat Owner" - PBO whi maintain a list of back numbvered articles. This would be a good guide.I have had no problems on my Bav 40 or other boats. They do remove the need for substantial prop shaft gear etc; and some might say more "net unfriendly". I understand that the flexible seal needs replacing from time to time; but is a relatively easy job when boat out of water.Graham Wood

 

[John Aubin]

Sail Drive - Pros

The dry bilge is great. There are some problems we have experienced. If you do not have a folding prop nmo body seems to know whether or not your suppose to sail withhte sail drive in gear or in neutral. When sailing with the sail drive in gear (reverse) it can be very hard to get it into neutral before starting the engine beacause of the preasure created by hte prop. The last observed problem is that the zinc is fairly small and must be changed frequently. You must haul the boat to change it.