Re: Saturday Was A Good Day
No, no sterndrive replacement here. This boat was always outboard powered, although the same hull was offered as a sterndrive unit as well. The replacement would be intensive but in a very real sense not difficult. If you were to remove the sterndrive you would be left with a big hole to fill. That, in itself, wouldn't be all that much of a problem if you have good access from the inside. The job would be very much like doing a transom replacement but just a section, not the whole thing. The thing about it is that you would certainly want a good strong bond to the existing transome and that would require a lot of overlap into the existing transom, probably at least half a foot I would think. I am pretty sure that all Grady's were built as if an outboard might be attached so I don't think transom strength would really be a problem. At any rate you'd have to do the glass work on the transom but after that it would be a pretty simple instillation. Of course you'd toss the engine box and have to take care of the floor too, but then it would allow you to build a very nice fish box into the transom, <br /><br />My bracket was made by Gil but there are a bunch of bracket makers out there. I see you are in Virginia Beach. As you probably already know there is a place down in Chesapeake or Suffolk, or whatever its called down there (I am in West Virginia so this isn't exactly my stomping grounds), on what I believe is called Military Highway, that sells used boat parts. If you could pick up a bracket for a couple of hundred bucks it would be a very sensible thing to do in my opnion. Your ballance will change by a bit but that shouldn't be a problem.<br /><br />If you are fishing off shore on that Grady, be it out of Rudy or down at Oregon Inlet or Hatteras I'm sure you'd be happier with an outboard than with that I/O. Aside from the cost of upkeep of an I/O in the salt there is the freeing up of cockpit space that you get with a bracketed outboard. Its priceless when the yellowfin are biting ... like right now.<br /><br />Here's what I mean:<br />
<br /><br />Thom
