It kind of like a Ford vs. Chevy (or X vs. M) debate. I'm with you, and I don't mind if others think I'm crazy. We all judge our own threshholds for hassle - and our own commitment to (interest in?)
sailing purity. (But the choice of a Mac is a big hint, right at the dock! )
I understand the wisdom in advising that everyone should try disconnecting if they have a problem with motor-flop. But they also might try leaving the motor down (or raised only slightly) to see how effectively that compares.
Not sure what you are getting at Cuisto, My thinking is do what ever you guys want. If someone wants to try disconnecting and looks for the info
about how to do it or what the diff. is. then I gave them that info.
If people dont want to hassle it so be it. But there are some that would like to try it, and I say go for it. It doesnt matter what Chip or I say I hope as far as trying or not trying something. Some people have bought this boat mainly to use motor more then sailing. I bought it to sail first and use the motor to get to far off sailing places faster. I reconize this and dont have a problem with this. But if you want to sail and sail to the best of the boats ability then disconnecting the motor is a step in that direction. There is no debate about this as far as Im concerned It feels way better and way less stress on the steering those are called facts. As far as its faster, who cares common sense tells you less drag will give more speed, but I would disconnect even if it made the boat slower. It just feels right when its done. And the auto pilot works
better. The boat feels more like a sailboat and that was the goal for me....
some may have the same goal.
Its like debateing if we should fish out of the Mac. I fish, I have had all kinds of fishing type boats, but never have out of the Mac. It just doesnt feel right to me I even have a rod rack installed on the Mac with 4 rods and reels. To use in case I change my mind. But I wouldnt jump on a thread about installing a bait tank on the Mac and say its not right. To each his own.
Same with a thread about disconnecting the steering, unless I felt is was
harmfull to the boat or crew I wouldnt jump in and try and stop people from doing it.
Its funny I have the pole holder too. I have thought about dragging a line at times, but then what do I do with a three hundred pound sailfish, with my luck thats the time I would catch it. And I can hear Karen now "you caught it but your not bringing that thing on board"
Did I ever tell you about the time Karen and I was fishing out of my 15 foot old trihull outboard. I always had a pole with hundred pound mono and a steel 10 foot leader soaking a bunch of dead squid in the back as I was fishing for sand bass, just in case you know. Well something big I mean big got a hold of it and towed me and my little boat all over the bay.
Karen was screaming for me to cut the line and I wanted to see what it was almost an hour of this and I got it close to the boat. It was as big as the boat was wide all I saw was a very large shadow and the line broke.
It turned out to be a batray. What a heart stopper that time was.
Love that story about catching a submarine! I looked at your great pole holders and immediately thought about how I shopped at West Marine only to find out the price of the SS heavy weights. I'm going to get one soon and try to hook that big one you have (Yea! like thats going to happen) the big one to impress the wife.
Look close and you can see the "Pole Holder" on the starboard rear stanchion of RichandLori's Mac!
Love the fishing story. I won't bring any fishing gear on my Mac for that very reason. Dawn wouldn't have any fishy stuff on "her boat" What to do with it if you actually catch one
Delevi now that the board is up Ill get you the info you need.. Better yet there is a Mac next to mine with an e-tech 60 on it. Ill take my linkage off and see how it looks. If it fits Ill let you know
While the board was down, I went ahead and bought the system. I posted a new thread. Thanks for all your help and everyone, thanks for the valuable input.
Okay, whether to tilt or drop and whether to just go or lock the motor up.
Interesting thread (and someone is concerned we're going to get the newbie confused).
No problem. I had my six year old grandchild read the thread and it's pretty simple. Ease your way out of the harbor motor down and connected. Get away from the rocks. Then, disconnect the motor and raise her up and fly with the wind.
Ah, so simple.
Yeah, well, not so simple.
I disconnect the X steering bar from it's faithful stud and move the 'bar' back to the bolt that sticks up out of the starboard rudder pivot point. Well, there's a nut on top of this thing. I surmise that a hole has to be drilled through this 'bolt' in order to plunk the outward wand of the steering bar down and secure it with a ring ding or one of my fancy bowtie hair pins.
That's fine. But, when I do that, the motor is cockeyed with the rudders. They no longer all point in the same directions. The Yamaha is cocked to port when the rudders are looking straight ahead.
Worse, should I get desperate some night and turn the helm too far in either direction, the 14" prop will chew into my precious rudders.
I expect no response to this dilemma and will contact BWY for any solace they may offer with their recent steering bar 'invention'.
You don't need to drill through the bolt. You can just unscrew the nut, drop the linkage over the bolt and screw the nut back on with your hand. If it's a lock nut, handtightening is just fine to keep it in place. As for not being straight, It doesn't need to be when tilted up, unless you want to power while disconnected and steer with rudders. Then it's an issue. Mine sits straight with the stock & BYW linkage. The BWY system is adjustable, but in my case, I had to saw off about 3/4" of the itnernal thread to get the length just right so the motor lined up with the rudders.
I'm not clear if you're disconnecting with the stock system or bough the BWY contraption.
The distance from the motor to the steering stud, and the distance from the motor to the pivot bolt are not equal. So I don't think anything would work that would allow things to line up. It's a Yamaha T50 with two steering hole options.
No, when connected they are aligned perfectly. Appears the Yamaha motor connection point is a little too far back to be able to swing the steering bar back, without cocking the motor to the left.
Next time I'm in the water I can check for sure, but I think my rudders would swing into the 14" prop if the motor was disconnected.
No problem if the cocked disconnected motor is tilted up.
Sloop,
You hit that nail square. The problem is the length of the outboard's tongue. With motor and rudders aligned, straight ahead, the tongue needs to be at that point exactly equidistant from the linkage bolt and the rudder post bolt.
My dealer fabbed a little extension to make it so. Ergo ... the outboard is dead-ahead when disconnected, at rest on the rudder post bolt. The benefit is that the motor and rudders can be used at slow speed even though the outboard does not turn. I can turn my rudders to both locks - they do not contact the prop.
Sloop we mounted the BWY system on Jetta's boat and he has the yamaha
60hp Not sure if there is any diff. from yours. The steering system mounted fine and it looks like only slightly off center. Jetta said it works fine and nothing was modified. His is an M and maybe thats what the diff. is. But it seems that putting a small extension on your engine would take care of the problem. or moving the hold down post.
What to do with it if you actually catch one 
