Sailboat propulsion by means other than sail can be a problematic affair. Fact is, whenever I read through sailboat ads in the VolksCruiser price range there seems to be no shortage of boats for sale that don’t have a working engine.
Which is hardly surprising considering most folks I know tend to have expensive ongoing problems with their engines of one form or another. With the cost of fixing an engine these days it makes more sense to sell the boat at a lower price than try and fix or replace the engine.
Just for the record I really don’t enjoy working with internal combustion engines especially in the cramped spaces they’re shoehorned into.
Electric propulsion is an attractive option but you do have to jump through some hoops in the whole power storage and generation matrix that makes my head hurt.
The cheapest and in my opinion best VolksCruiser solution is a small outboard engine. The 6HP longshaft on “So It Goes” has enough oomph to get us in or out of a marina or anchorage and get us to where we want to go if there’s zero wind as long as we’re not in a hurry. Better yet, outboards are fairly easy to work on when needed and they’re a lot more affordable than the other options.
Over at Atom Voyages James Baldwin has the go-to solution for getting past most of the issues and stigma involved when installing an outboard on a VolksCruiserish sized sailboat.