POD uppers resealed, Ceramic coated shafts installed

[Morgan Jane]

Love my 470. Going on my 8th season with it so that alone should say something. Longest I’ve ever owned a boat by 2X. Dislike canvas and not having sliding glass door but I do like driving with the aft wide open. I added custom 90 degree down canvas which keeps heat and a/c in when needed and with great aft visibility; the factory canvas offers terrible visibility. Dislike the fact the helm seats don’t swivel like they do on the 48/50 and 510. Like the aft sunpad with the backrests that swing open, we use it a lot. She handles great, can turn 180 degrees in 2 boat-lengths. You can see the horizon out the sunroof window and the engines don’t give up RPM in the meantime. I added the hydraulic swim platform, but I suggest buying one with it already. I ditched the dinghy and now carry a Yamaha VX on it.

Knock wood I’ve had better luck with my pods and transmissions than some others. I have 1430 original hours on all. I’m crazy about PM and spare no expense to keep myself on the water to maximize a short season and busy work schedule. I check all three pod fluids before I leave the dock and after I return. I know guys who never do that. One pod owner told me MarineMax checks all that for him when he launches in the spring. He’s had problems!

What year are you looking at?

Can you elaborate a little more on the canvas you used? are you saying you used a canvas that has better thermal qualities? I would be interested in something like that. Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[Henry Boyd]

Before I decided to run without them, I asked a tried and true POD expert. I confirmed with him there is absolutely no rudder effect or performance improvement that the skegs add. If you Google "ZF Pods" you'll see those don't have any skegs at all, which adds credibility to his assertion. Plus I've run my boat with both skegs, one skeg, and no skegs and I can tell you I've not discerned any difference at all. In the Zeus pod, the skegs' sole purpose is to protect the props and they're designed to break off to help protect the pod itself by absorbing some of the shock if the grounding is minor. Contrast that to IPS skegs which may or may not protect the props depending on the contour of the sea floor and probably offer no protection against floating debris. Also the IPS skegs are not "break-away" so they offer no impact absorption to help you keep from losing the pod entirely.

If skegs do nothing why are they on a gazillion outboards, sterndrives and pods? They must provide something besides looks. While I am normally hesitant to re-engineer somebody else’s work, I agree given the choice of taking them off, or risking a repeated prop trashing, I’d go with the former as well.

I did Google ZF pods and found lots of circa 2013 literature, including an article about a Yanmar ZF pod equipped 38 Sabre (like mine) but the current Sabre website does not have a yanmar power option. ZF’s current website has no mention of a pod drive other than the sail drive. Next time I talk to my Sabre CS guy I’ll ask about the yanmar ZF article.

 

[JamesT]

Can you elaborate a little more on the canvas you used? are you saying you used a canvas that has better thermal qualities? I would be interested in something like that. Thanks in advance.

Bill

Bill,

The material of my custom canvas is the exact same Taylor made stuff as the factory canvas, except the glass is thicker but can be rolled up and hung. I did this because you will find that in the summer time, the air condition of the 470 is almost useless without any canvas at all and worse if you try to run with factory canvas. There is simply way too much square footage for the cockpit unit to keep cool. So the canvas I had made drops 90 degrees downward from the back of the hardtop straight down to the floor and snaps on the bottom and sides. That results in a massive drop in square footage of air that has to be cooled. Unfortunately you lose some of your aft seating because it's on the other side of the curtain. I also tinted the all the windows and sunroof to help reduce greenhouse effect. And because the entire aft custom canvas is glass from top of hard top down to cushions my visibility is excellent. In 2021 I had the canvas guy customize the valance and side track pieces to put in two sets of zippers; one that holds the factory canvas configuration and a different one that holds the custom configuration. This way I don't have to swap valance and tracks when I go back and forth from custom to factory. I wish I thought of that 3 years ago.

 

[JamesT]

If skegs do nothing why are they on a gazillion outboards, sterndrives and pods? They must provide something besides looks. While I am normally hesitant to re-engineer somebody else’s work, I agree given the choice of taking them off, or risking a repeated prop trashing, I’d go with the former as well.

I did Google ZF pods and found lots of circa 2013 literature, including an article about a Yanmar ZF pod equipped 38 Sabre (like mine) but the current Sabre website does not have a yanmar power option. ZF’s current website has no mention of a pod drive other than the sail drive. Next time I talk to my Sabre CS guy I’ll ask about the yanmar ZF article.

Henry, the purpose of the skeg on outboards and stern drives is to serve as as the first and likely only point of contact with the bottom, as follows. When running aground at speed, those units are designed to "kick-up" to the full tilt position resulting in little to no damage to drives or hull. Several times in my previous sterndrive boats I went from 30mph to 0 very suddenly. Without the kick-up safety feature my sterndrives would have ripped off and probably taken some of my transom with it. Instead, I was towed off and experienced zero damage. I honestly think the manufacturers put skegs on pods to make people feel more comfortable, but you run aground hard on any pod and busted props will be the least of your concern.

 

[Morgan Jane]

Bill,

The material of my custom canvas is the exact same Taylor made stuff as the factory canvas, except the glass is thicker but can be rolled up and hung. I did this because you will find that in the summer time, the air condition of the 470 is almost useless without any canvas at all and worse if you try to run with factory canvas. There is simply way too much square footage for the cockpit unit to keep cool. So the canvas I had made drops 90 degrees downward from the back of the hardtop straight down to the floor and snaps on the bottom and sides. That results in a massive drop in square footage of air that has to be cooled. Unfortunately you lose some of your aft seating because it's on the other side of the curtain. I also tinted the all the windows and sunroof to help reduce greenhouse effect. And because the entire aft custom canvas is glass from top of hard top down to cushions my visibility is excellent. In 2021 I had the canvas guy customize the valance and side track pieces to put in two sets of zippers; one that holds the factory canvas configuration and a different one that holds the custom configuration. This way I don't have to swap valance and tracks when I go back and forth from custom to factory. I wish I thought of that 3 years ago.

View attachment 102304

Thanks for the explanation. Very nice setup.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Henry, the purpose of the skeg on outboards and stern drives is to serve as as the first and likely only point of contact with the bottom, as follows. When running aground at speed, those units are designed to "kick-up" to the full tilt position resulting in little to no damage to drives or hull. Several times in my previous sterndrive boats I went from 30mph to 0 very suddenly. Without the kick-up safety feature my sterndrives would have ripped off and probably taken some of my transom with it. Instead, I was towed off and experienced zero damage. I honestly think the manufacturers put skegs on pods to make people feel more comfortable, but you run aground hard on any pod and busted props will be the least of your concern.

While I lack your experience with high speed hard groundings, I concur they won’t make a difference if the pod shears off. But this retired mechanical engineer doubts Volvo put skegs on the IPS to give customers a warm fuzzy or because they look good.

 

[blaster]

My experience with skegs is that they are most helpful at low speed in shallow water.

Major damage is almost assured with an underwater strike at cruising speed.

 

[JamesT]

Thanks for the explanation. Very nice setup.

The OEM on most factory canvas for SR is Gioia Sails in Lakewood NJ and South Florida. @Shaps if you’re interested, their FL location has the pattern for the 90 degree drop canvas and cushion cover on fike for the 48/50 Dancers. They did not have one for the 470 so I had another shop make mine.

 

[Shaps]

Thanks @JamesT
I was lucky, my boat came with that drop curtain. I don't think the PO ever put it on.