shaft vs outdrive

[petermills]

A few years ago I made the stupid mistake of buying a Sealine 24 for the Thames. This was an outdrive job and the constant need to try to keep her on a straight line took away all the pleasure of boating. She was a nice little boat but was an outdrive job. After selling her I vowed to never get another outdrive boat withba single engine. I am contemplating getting. Another boat but most of those which fit my bill seem to have outdrives. Limited funds leave me with a couple of options - Princess 30 or Birchwood 25. Anyone out there know how these handle with outdrive??

 

[Big John]

Any boat with an outdrive will be hard to steer once you are out of gear, twin or single. Steerage is maintained by propulsion.
You can fit bolt on rudders as on an outboard but not very practical.
The plus point with shaft driven are they are much easier to maintain.

There are plenty of Birchwoods that are shaft driven, mostly petrol but there are a few diesel versions around. You should also look at the Freeman 23,24 or if funds can stretch the 27, all shaft driven.

 

[oldgit]

. Limited funds leave me with a couple of options - Princess 30 or Birchwood 25.

The Princes 30DS is a very nice boat.If you look elswhere than on the T****s you can probably get deisel for the same money,if you are real lucky mebbe even with a shaft/s.
They did do a twin setup with 60HP diesels,dog slow offshore but ideal for your location.

 

[No Regrets]

Yup, stick to shafts, small Petrols (Birchwood 25) are economical and usually reliable if maintained (Cheaper to buy a Distributer than a DPA pump too!!) so don't be scared. Be scared of V8's....

Shaft drive boats are £500pa less to service on average (Per shaft!!...) and steer better at sub 6mph speeds. Less liable to damage, and terminal failure (Bearing in mind the 30 year old boats you mention...)

 

[Cashbuyer]

Did you mean a Princess 25? Otherwise the price difference between a Bircwood 25 and Princess 30 is quite large, so there should be plenty of choice inbetween with shafts?

 

[Glorfindel]

Our Princess 30 DS has twin Volvo Petrols (AQ 151Bs) on outdrives and we have no problem maintaining a normal course - previously have had single shaft boats on the Broads. The twins make close manoeuvring a piece of cake. The only river problem is that the planning hull makes for quite severe windage hassels compared with a 'river boat'.

 

[CX54WEK]

You find that with regular practice you get used to how a single outdrive boat handles and it becomes a piece of cake.

We will have had our Sealine S23 for eight years this year, yes the maintenance can be expensive but if you learn to do it yourself then the costs are reduced considerably.

We use our boat on the rivers and canals as well as on the coast.

Whatever boat you buy you will have to learn how it handles as they are all different.