And, of course, we know you realize that as long as that driive or lower
unit is tilted up close to maximum you won't be able to go much above idle
speed, right? Depending upon the distance to deeper water you could be
spending a lot of time going very slowly.

If the entire area where you intend to boat is pretty shallow you may want
to consider a boat/motor combo designed to operate in shallow water. For
those types 30 inches of water is the norm.

Butch
"DownTime" wrote in message
m...
Who??? Me???? wrote:
I just bought a place with a dock on a creek that provides direct access
to
the river. The creek is wide, 700 feet or so, and the water level is
fairly
stable and doesn't drop below about 30" at the end of the dock. I am not
familiar with shallow water operation of a sterndrive motor, and I am
looking at purchasing a different boat with the sterndrive. The boat I
am
considering has a draft of 18" with the drive up, but a maximum draft of
36"
with the drive down. How far can you safely trim up the outdrive at low
speed on a sterndrive? Does this sound like it can work or am I barking
up
the wrong tree?

All help greatly appreciated!

Tom
Given the parameters you provided, I would be more inclined to go with an
outboard. You should be able to raise it up a bit more than a stern drive,
and still maintain reasonable control and maneuverability.