Outboard Pods

[drb]

Anyone know of decent suppliers/manufacturers of outboard pods.

Any advise on fitting or experience anyone has with fitting one to a fiberglass boat would be great too

thanks

Darren

[boatboy50]

Hey,
I fitted a pod to a Seafarer Venus (V-Sea) hull many years back.
It worked wonders, turned a good boat into a great one.
I had mine fitted by Trewalla Marine on the Gold Coast. The pod was a standard mould they had, and the set up was great. The finish wasnt so great, but the price reflected it.
PM for more info if you need it.
Regards
Darren

[NQCairns]

I have been researching the net for a while now with the view to fitting one to a project boat which I raised the transom full height. I have traveled in poded boats but have not yet been lucky enough to get to know a boat well before and after.
Here is some of the general info I found might help and some could be outright wrong too when applying it to a specific boat.

Generally hull extension pods suit under 18foot boats better than setback pods.
Both can work well on over 18 foot
Deeper V boats get better overall results from a pod than shallower hulls.
If fitting a setback pod to an under 20 footer plan a spot for the possible fitting of trim tabs, they might be needed.
Setback pods can increase top speed and lower planing speed by as much 10% even more when set up well.
Hull extension around the 6% to 10% if it was badly needed.
Less chance of having a poor result from a hull extension.
The engine should be raised approx 1 inch for every foot of setback (very specific to hull type)
If cavitation is a problem then a setback bracket (15 or 20 odd cm)can help a lot.
Use 3m 4800 or 5200 to seal any through hull bolts.
Ask what polyester resin the pod is made of Vinyl-ester strongest, most expensive and overall the best, Iso grade is cheaper and quite all-right although less strong in every respect and ortho grade is the cheapest and best left alone for a pod because it will need to be quite thick and heavy compared to the above grades especially the vinyl-ester.
Prolly heaps more :) info around. nq

[drb]

thanks guys, thats a great help