Darwinian wrote:
Hey, I tried it. I have a 16 foot AMF Sunbird and use a 2.5 horse Mercury as auxiliary power. I decided to hang that motor on my AI as well, just for grins and giggles.
I rigged a two by four, about 15 inches long, flat across the rear crossbar and bolted it, with U bolts, to the crossbar. Above that I placed another, edge up, that extended about a foot over the right side of the kayak. I put two steel rods, covered with one inch outside diameter PVC pipes, through the rear drain holes and placed them, through the flat two by four and bolted them, with U bolts, to the edge up two by four which I used to hand the outboard on.
It worked beautifully EXCEPT for one problem. The wake and prop wash from the motor completely filled the rear storage compartment. The wake from the motor shaft and the wash from the prop were both about six inches high and the rear of the rear of the AI was about three inches above the water line. That was with the motor causing the AI to nose up. The water came over very strong and the drain holes were used and could not drain the water. It would not have mattered much because the water came over faster than the holes could drain even if they had been open. I was hauling about 200 pounds of water with me.
I could not figure out any way around the problem so I just took the whole damn thing off. I probably could have figured out a way to fill the rear compartment with something but I did not think it worth the effort. I had already devoted far too much time and effort to something that I just was not going to use that much anyway.
A failed project, end of story.
Ron P.
Wow, thanks for saving me a lot of dissapointment Ron, I woudn't have guessed that problem.
Where I sail there is nowhere to come ashore outside the Harbor for a hundred Kliks in either direction, save trashing my AI in the heavy surf on lonely, open ocean beaches and maybe drown myself as well.
I need a Stink Kit as these spoilt purists say, so I can motor up wind and then be able to sail back with a following breeze, even with broken rudder, instead of being swept over to new Zealand.
It's something extra I don't really want to have to deal with but it's basically survival equipment under these circumstances and taking responsibility for your own safety.
Many times I wish I had a nice freshwater lake bounded by countless places to land and no sea monsters like so many of you guys have.