This morning I launched the Core Sound to try out the second hand Torqeedo I bought a few weeks back. It has no tiller, and a separate throttle. The idea is you steer with tiller.
The good news is that the short shaft is an ok length with crew weight towards the stern. I was worried the prop would cavitate, but does not seem to be an issue.
Not so good, the prop is about twice the size of the Honda's, and I could not turn to starboard in the harbour space without hitting rudder blade with prop. I should have just turned the boat using dock lines, and we could have motored out no worries, but, by trying to be a smartarse, I put on a good bonehead boater display before we were finally pointing in right direction. Bjorn came out with me today, and very kindly witheld any criticism of my boat handling, and refrained from jumping ship.
The Torqeedo can push the Core Sound at 4.6 knots, max. Display says I can only do that for a couple of miles, but that is plenty for getting in and out of harbour. At around 2.5 knots display tells me I can do 19 miles. I used about 16 % of battery fiddling round, getting in and out of the harbour today. It feels very civilize though, and it is great to be able to clear the transome once you don't need engine.
The wind was light today, so we broke out the mizzen staysail, which seems to help. And eventually the wind picked up a bit, and we enjoyed a nice run over towards the Jawbone.
All in all it was a good day on the water, and I learned a few things. It was good to have a break from Skerry building.