I went the full nine yards with my SW Dory kit - rowing, sailing and motor well options. My thought was I could row for exercise, sail for fun, and motor when fishing or in the spring and fall when my 1967 Penn Yan runabout is on the hard. But after doing a dry fit of the centerboard trunk and the motor well with Susuki 2.5 hp there is not a lot of real estate left in the cockpit. The only place to sit is between the centerboard trunk and motor with your knees squeezed together. When sailing especially you need to be able to move around - sometimes quickly - when tacking, to adjust boat trim, or whatever, and that would be difficult. Possible, but certainly not comfortable. With the motor tilted forward I'm not sure there is even enough room to fully extend your arms forward when rowing. So I am going to think about it for awhile, but it is likely I will set the motor well assembly and unused Susuki aside and glass the piece I cut out of the bottom back in. If I really miss the motor I can always reinstall the well.
Charlie,
Don't take this the wrong way, but just how long are your arms anyway?
John is leaning forward, arms fully extended and he's still not touching the tilted forward motor, and he's around 6' tall, if not taller.
Maybe something's not in the right place?
Laszlo
Thanks, Lazlo. Admittedly I had to eyeball the oarlock location since they aren't installed yet, but I could approximate pretty well based on the location of the inwale spacer and the motor was properly located on its mount in the well. Also you can't tell from the photo how close John's hands are to the motor. In any event that issue is secondary to the lack of room to move around between the centerboard/thwart and the motor well. It really is very confining, more so than I anticipated. I'll hang on to the Susuki and the well assembly for now, and if I really miss the motor after a season or so I can always reinstall it.
If I went with a trolling motor instead of an outboard why couldn't I modify the well and gain maybe 18 inches of cockpit space?
I’m 5’5” and for once in my life grateful for my pigmy stature. To accomodate the cuddy, I added a half width thwart (removeable) to my std rowing thwart and relocated my rowlocks the equal distance aft. The OB tilted forward does not intrude on my rowing room. Inspired by Roger Barnes I actually have a removeable galley box hard up against the engine well. It does cramp me up a bit and for more serious rowing I would like to extend my feet n brace against the front of the engine well. Not perfect but then everything in Life is a compromise. My SW Dory is set up for multi day trips for a solo sailor. Still doing sea trials so still WIP. Hope it helps. Ed
@Charles_Fausold it is true that the motor well takes some space. Have you sat in the boat with everything in place, or mocked up? Construction is complete on my boat and I mocked up the well with cardboard. While it is intrusive, there is more room than I thought. You won’t want to measure from the end of the CB trunk, but from the aft edge of the thwart. The CB trunk does extend back further, but it doesn’t take up any real space beyond the thwart. It is true though that the motor in kicked-up position will intrude further though. The well was surely designed for the most typical 2-4hp gas outboard. Some kind of electric option with remote battery and controls could use a smaller well.
Hi Aaron - What I ended up doing was putting an electric motor made for kayaks on the bottom of the rudder. It has enough power and battery capacity to get me in and out of the dock, maintain headway into the wind while I raise the sails, and do some trolling. I suppose it detracts a bit from sailing performance, but having it on the end of the rudder avoids any problems beaching the boat.
That is very interesting. I suppose you can swap back to the “acoustic” rudder if you wanted to? Definitely some cool possibilities in the e-drive world these days.