Leisure 17 outboard placement

[Benjibob22]

I am struggling as to how high I’m supposed to mount the outboard. I’m going to motor it about a little first before I sail it, anyway I’ve been told it’s too high, can someone help me as to what the correct height is please, thanks

 

[Benjibob22]

I tried to post a picture but I can’t see it. File was too large, here’s a pic, thanks again

 

[bill bligh]

Ask on the Leisure owners association site.

 

[Refueler]

As an ex O/board on bracket boater .... I can say :

Set at recc'd prop depth based on its cavitation plate - when boat pitches - prop can partly 'surface'.

If set at what keeps prop deeper and less breaking surface - then it can be a pig to get to for raising / lowering / starting.

I chose the latter and accepted that being lower I had prop working better ... but paid price of access to engine.

"bill bligh" suggestion of asking Owners Assoc is good ...

 

[Tranona]

If that is in the down position then it is about right, but could go lower. It is not clear from your photo if the bracket is in the fully down position, and if not it should go down further. That is a long shaft engine and the nominal depth from top of the mounting board to waterline should be 20". That will immerse the lower unit to well above the cavitation plate when the boat is static.

 

[Refueler]

If if was me .... I would set that engine down a bit further ... probably till the tiller bar is level with top of deck .... just looking at the photo - it seems unusually the motor part of the engine ... of course its a long shaft ...

The cav plate I think is a touch high as it is roughly inline with what I would expect is waterline of the boat when quiet ... if I remember right - the extreme transom on such only just touches water surface.

 

[Praxinoscope]

We were lucky when we bought our Leisure 17, we bought it straight from Cobramold and they fitted the o/b bracket so was set ready, but we later had to replace the bracket, not through any failure on the construction, we made the mistake of inviting a ‘friend’ for a sail, he assured us he knew what he was doing with our outboard (a Seagull Silver Century), we should have known better, he happily started thd engine the took it up to full revs and let in the clutch, it ripped the bracket straight off complete with engine, the only comment we got from him was that it was still running when it was about 6’ down. its eventual resting place was in about 60’ of water just off Hengistbury Head.
History bit over, from memory and having to fit a new bracket, your photo looks about right fir position.

 

[ProDave]

Is that bracket complete? What is the ratchet strap doing?

This is ours, also with a Tohatsu, fully up the bottom of the leg is still in the water, if you want it right out you have to tilt is as well.

Can't find a photo with it down.

 

[neil_s]

I remember I had to tilt the motor on my Sunray to get the prop out of the water, too.

 

[William_H]

An outboard bracket should be adjustable while motoring. Certainly on my TS the boats pitch varies a lot from worst case motoring in to big waves where motor can cavitate from being too shallow or situation where someone goes forward to pick up a mooring. On the other hand too deep can just cause drag in calm water with crew in cockpit. Not that the drag question is so much of a problem when motoring. For sailing I would lift on bracket then tilt motor up as high as possible then lash with light rope around the power head up to stern rail. So yes if you have a fixed bracket then lower is best and hope you can raise prop clear of water. ol'will

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

We were lucky when we bought our Leisure 17, we bought it straight from Cobramold and they fitted the o/b bracket so was set ready, but we later had to replace the bracket, not through any failure on the construction, we made the mistake of inviting a ‘friend’ for a sail, he assured us he knew what he was doing with our outboard (a Seagull Silver Century), we should have known better, he happily started thd engine the took it up to full revs and let in the clutch, it ripped the bracket straight off complete with engine, the only comment we got from him was that it was still running when it was about 6’ down. its eventual resting place was in about 60’ of water just off Hengistbury Head.
History bit over, from memory and having to fit a new bracket, your photo looks about right fir position.

......and that was when you learned that best practice is to always connect your engine to the pushpit with a lanyard, so that it can never go adrift more that a couple of inches below the level of the bracket.
(This is not meant as any critism of your good self, but as an object lesson to anyone out there who is new to the use of o/bs and doesn't know any better.)

 

[Praxinoscope]

......and that was when you learned that best practice is to always connect your engine to the pushpit with a lanyard, so that it can never go adrift more that a couple of inches below the level of the bracket.
(This is not meant as any critism of your good self, but as an object lesson to anyone out there who is new to the use of o/bs and doesn't know any better.)

Yes we made the mistake of having the lanyard going from the engine to the s/s eye we had fitted on the bracket, it didn’t really occur to us as novice sailors (this was 50 years ago) that the bracket would go as well.
We fitted the s/s eye to the transom after this, and banned our ‘friend’ from going anywhere near the engine.