Short shaft vs long shaft

[moby1]

The wife just lost her job and it's time to make some extra cash. Here is my situation. I have two Mid eighties evinrude 15hp motors. One is a short shaft and one is a long shaft. The short shaft is on my wc12 and the long is laying in the garage. I know what the downside is of trying to run a short shaft on a deeper boat but is there a down side to running a long shaft on a shallow boat? Seems more people are looking for short shaft motors for duck hunting at this time of year so I would have better luck selling that one but if there is a down side to running the long shaft on the shallow 12 I will keep the short. Keep in mind the 12 will be put at the cabin before too long and will only be used once in a great while.

Thanks for any input.

[Valv]

Long shaft is approx 5" longer than short shaft, your lower unit will stick further down the bottom of boat.

You will have to pay attention when navigating shallow waters, otherwise there's not much difference.

[DTro]

I'm going to have to disagree on this one. You will have a helluva time trying to plane, the water will ride up the transom and splash into the boat, and the steering won't work very well. Boats are designed so that the anticavatation plate (the big fin above the prop) should be about one inch above the keel.

Now if you are just out putting around with a smaller hp motor, I would raise it up on the transom as far as possible. It will get you where you need to go, but not ideal.

[Valv]

Even better, email me about your long shaft....

[moby1]

VALV

I will shoot an email off this afternoon or evening. I see you are getting rid of your alumacraft. Wish I had gotten rid of my 14' lund. Id snap that boat up in a heartbeat. (I finally finished my project thanks to you for supplying most of the hardwear and miscelaneous parts) and the 15 longshaft. Ill have to email you a couple of pics. It turned out pretty nice.