Repowering from twins to single and a kicker

[BMBF]

Hello everyone!
I'm new here. And new to the s-Dory world. It sounds like the boat for me after much searching. I am looking at the 98 22' cruiser posted here. My question is: the kicker doesn't tilt completely out of the water. Is that proper? Should it have a different kicker? I plan to keep the boat in the water. Thanks!

[jkidd]

[Foggy]

Most agree, wider (twins) is better.

Aye.

[Kushtaka]

Good grief. Another twins vs. single/kicker thread.

Switching to a single/kicker from twins involves:

1. Slashwell drain location: Boats osetup for twins from the factory have the splashwell drain in amidships. Boats set up for singles have the drain offset. You will need to move it off to one side.

2. Holes: remove outboards, deal with holes. If you are lucky the hardest part will be removing all of the sealant. that will mean you likely have dry core. If not, the sealant will come off more easily (at least somewhere!) and you may need to remove a bit of wet core around your holes. There are many threads on how to fill these holes. I have some good pics about dealing with transom/vertical holes.

3. Drill new holes for new outboard (layout is key. If you have a good shop, have them do this for you if you aren't certain. The last thing you want is your single to be slightly off from vertical, or slightly off to one side or the other. Make sure to remove a bit of extra core, refill the holes with epoxy (again, lots of info on doing this) and redrill your holes into your epoxy plugs to preserve your transom core.

4. As previously observed, it will be time to add trim tabs. Make sure to treat the trim tab holes like the motor holes. Remove a little extra core, fill the hole, and redrill into the plug to preserve both transom and bottom core. Yes, this is optional, but you will be glad to have them if you don't.

5. If you add trim tabs, your kicker will likely not fit well on your tgransom and you will need a bracket. There are many options. Several people like the mini jacker (I have one I was going to use before I had a custom bracket/swimstep built, $50 plus shipping?). If not your kicker will hit your trim tabs.

6. You may decide to run your kicker as a tiller motor. That's what I do, but I plan on adding the option to connnect to the main. I just sleeved a 5' long pvc pipe to the throttle, and can pretty much steer from anywhere in the cockpit. When I longline I can run my kicker and my hauler on opposite corners of the cockpit. Depending on how you set up your kicker, you may want to go with the tiller, connect to your main, or simply put a separate cable steer (I'd use a stick steer, not a wheel to save space) and control box for your kicker. I'd have put in a stick steer and control box for my kicker if I had bought it myself, but it came with the boat as a tiller and refitting them is $$$.

So that's how you switch from twins to single/kicker, and that's all the stuff I can think of that you will encounter and need to deal with. Of course your tankage might need to be adjusted. Many boats with twins are simply set up with each motor drawing from its own tank. In the PNW, where water in fuel is a common issue I find having my choice of two tanks is often as beneficial as twin engines. So being able to switch between your tanks is key, in case one gets water in it or is otherwise fouled. You'll want to give your kicker this flexibility too. Not at all required though. You can just have your motors all pull from both tanks together.

Good luck!!!