An Explanation of the Engine Compartment

The power for the boat is from a Tohatsu long shaft 9.8 hp four stroke outboard. The decision to avoid an outboard placement of the engine is that the pointed stern really doesn't lend itself to this, having no transom nor stern post for it to be fixed to. Also any extra weight astern will have the tendency to sink the fine and less buoyant stern and change the attitude of the boat to the waterline. However, to choose an outboard motor to be placed inboard might seem a little bizarre but compactness, ease of removal and maintenance and freedom from portals broaching the hull seemed to make sense at least and in the nature of an experimental boat this itself seemed a worthwhile project. Another advantage could have been, had I been prepared to make a considerably larger hole in the bottom of the boat, to allow full excursion of the steering capacity of the engine as happens normally with the engine on a transom, rotating as it does on a vertical placed high the general housing of the engine. Considering the present placement of the engine at 2/3rds the boat length this would have had a remarkable effect on its steering capability acting as though there was an angled component of a bow thruster. Anyway the small exit for the propeller hub and shaft precluded this but it is an interesting item for the future.