most riders do have bigger moters, granted, but it's not for moving the mower, that doesn't take a bunch of power, the bigger motor is for swinging the blades.the hydro unit doesn't know how big a motor it's attatched to, it just changes the direction of whatever torque is applied to it at whatever reduction ratio is designed into the hydraulic transfer.
setting it up for a sail drive would simply mean changing the axle orientation from being at right angle to the drive belt line (as it is in a riding mower) to being in line (or parallel) to the belt drive line.
eliminating one axle side would allow the drive unit to be moved closer, by the length of eliminated axle, to the power source, using shorter belts. with the axle eliminated, the power source (a verticle shaft lawnmower motor of any hp. rating chosen) could be lowered in front of the drive unit and a jack shaft could be inserted between the hydro unit and the power source to transfer the belt drive back up to the top of the unit..... the pto on the motor is on the bottom.... belt to bottom pully on jack shaft,positioned verticaly, between motor and hydro unit... belt from top pully of jack shaft to input shaft/pully on hydro unit. the entire drive unit could be fastened to a fabricated frame of angle and plate that positions the motor, jack shaft and hydrounit in the proper location to each other, then mounted to bed rails in the boat. i would think entire unit wouldn't be any bulkier than any other drive beng concocted here. the length of the axle housing can't be included in the overall size of the drive unit, because it is in line with the prop shaft and only would take up some of the space of a normal prop shaft, the shaft being shorter by the length of the axle housing.
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