I have a powerdrive 50 that I had mounted on the left stern corner of a Four
Winns 18 ft bowrider. I traded in the boat last summer and kept the trolling
motor, but I haven't yet figured out how to mount it on my new Sea Ray 200
sundeck. The powerdrive worked great for what I needed it for. Being mounted
on the stern corner, it was nearly impossible to push the boat in the usual
forward direction, so I used it to pull the boat backwards while fishing. I
never really used it for trolling; just for working the shorelines and boat
docks and boathouses on the lake where I fish.
There was no good flat spot on the bow upon which to mount the motor on the old
boat and I have sort of the same problem on the new boat. I will probably
mount it the same way on the swim platform of the new boat. However the new
boat is 1000 lbs heavier and I wonder if the 50pd will pull it adequately.
I found the motor's steering response was adequate although a little slow at
times, usually when not paying attn and then needed to push away from a
floating dock or something when fighting a fish. However my motor is
old...about 1996 or 1997. I tried one last year at bass pro shops and it
changed direction much more quickly than my old one. I seem to recall that it
is advertised as such as well. Yes the cord can sometimes wind around the
shaft but that is really never a problem; just wind the other way if it
happens. I would recommend the powerdrive highly as I never had a problem with
mine and it worked great. I also liked the 18 ft cord which would allow me to
control it from anywhere in the boat. I am really interested in the wireless
remote which is available now as well.....it can be retrofitted to my motor as
well as the newer ones. I will probably mount my old motor and see how it
performs on the new boat. If its not good, I might buy a more powerful one but
the strongest powerdrive that runs on 12 volts is 55 pounds of thrust. I will
mount a battery solely dedicated to the trolling motor but I don't want to go
to 24 or 36 volts. Hope this was informative.

Ken