long vs short shaft motors?

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Passport

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ok, so what is the difference, other than the obvious of course. I keep seeing this term, short or long shaft, come up but don’t know the application other than needing a low draw boat with a high transom would need a longer shaft. Is that the only diff?
 
When I bought my alumacraft 1648 I had the option of what transom I wanted. I chose the 21" transom to run with a long shaft motor. My reason being was less of a chance taking water over transonm.
 
I'm speaking from a guess more than anything but...here's how I see it. Short shaft motor and boat would way a tad less but probably not much. Another "advantage" of the short shaft is basically a lower profile to the top of the motor. I personally don't see either to be great advantages but I'm sure others do.
 
Some of the newer motors and the weight involved with them, it's nearly impossible to manually tilt a long shaft motor. The short shaft motors are still hard to tilt but not as hard as a long shaft. There is more motor in the water and further away from the lifting point, making it harder to tilt. Mine's a short shaft. But I already had the motor. If I hadn't already had a 15" motor, I'd have gotten a 21" transom for sure! I have had times when waves had come over the back. Not a huge deal but it makes you pucker up a little.
 
As others have said, longshaft gives you more "freeboard" ie transom above the water level. Less chance of swamping when taking wakes or decelerating suddenly, but all other dimensions being equal, the longshaft boat (and motor) will weigh a little more and probably draft slightly deeper.
 

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