Swift 18 Owners

You never know, I might have installed it by the time we get over to Conwy. Weather is still not looking very promising though.

Regarding the saildrive issue, by using a different prop they are supposed to give more power at lower speeds and therefore suit sailing boat better. I don't know whether there is much in this but they do come with a proper charging coil as standard and to have the same coil fitted to a basic 5hp engine would have added £200 to the price making it a bit more expensive. So I thought I might as well give saildrive a go.

I’ve been using the Tohatsu saildrive for a bit now and am in a bit better position to give an opinion.
First of all, there doesn’t seem a great deal of difference, if any, between the power of my old mariner 4hp 2 stroke and the sail drive but the prop wash on the latter makes it a nightmare to reverse. The friction screw which increases the motor’s resistance to turning fell off after about 6 hours use. I tried to get it fixed by the firm I bought it from but they said I must have over tightened it and weren’t interested in spite of the fact that I have had two motors in the past ten years with identical friction screws and didn’t over tighten them. It over revs on half choke and it’s a B**** to start if it’s not quite cold. I have failed to start it coming back to my mooring on three occasions (2 occasions I had to anchor to fiddle with plugs and things and, the other, I managed to pick up a mooring under sail.) It slips out of gear in reverse and into gear when in neutral.
Also, I have to keep priming the fuel pipe from the remote tank at about 5 minute intervals or the dam thing starves itself of fuel (this might be the way I have things set up so it might be an unfair criticism.)

Other minor gripes:

The plug was over tightened and I was unable to remove it with the box spanner provided.
The was a excessive amount of grease on the linkages and cables making the removal of the cover a full overalls job.
Coupled with the fact that it’s too heavy to lift over the side into my dingy and it really needs to be kept upright, on the boat, I wish I’d stayed with my 2 stroke.
Terry

Cheers Dave, I think I might just do that.

Terry,
Don't know if you've tried them, but Tim at Menai Marine in Caernarfon Victoria Dock is very knowledgeable on the Tohatsu. It's where we got ours from and have it serviced there.
Just an idea.

Hi Simon
Yes, I priced him up last year but got a better price on line. May be it pays to buy local! He is the guy I had in mind to get it serviced. I hope he's forgotten that I didn't buy from him.
See you Sunday, Terry

PS. I'm having to sneek up on my computer to make a broadband connection