Motor comes out of the water in big waves

After installing a new motor and sorting out the kinks, my motor works very well. Because the transom of the Tanzer 22 is quite high out of the water the motor tends to come out when the boat goes through big waves.

The stern of my boat shows the transom. It is actually quite high even in quiet water. When the motor is down even at the lowest setting it still goes out of the water in choppy conditions. It's a long shaft motor but I should have gotten an extra long shaft.

Here the motor is tilted up but the motor mount is fully down. The transom is several inches above the water level.

Humber Bay is very choppy and can have confused waves of over 5 feet near the breakwall. I took this photo during one of the high winds. The perspective is odd because of the zoom.

When I'm coming in (during calmer weather,) it is not unusual for the motor to lift clear out of the water, and make a huge roaring noise. It's quite scary when the boat is being shaken and shifted this way and that. I admit to being a full fledged chicken!

My Tanzer has a newish Fulton Motor Mount. I installed it after I purchased the new 4 stroke. The original old bracket was not strong enough to handle the increased strains of the new motor. Here is my Motor saga. I had spent a few uncomfortable hours under the floor changing the motor mount and did not like the idea of going back under the cockpit. I also did not like the idea of making more holes in my hull.

After checking the motor mount plate I figured out that the way the bracing was designed, I could cut one section off and not weaken the plate. The plate is plastic and is not solid, rather it has a criss-cross pattern of ridges to stiffen it. This shortened the plate by about 2 inches and still allowed the motor to attach and screw on perfectly.

Result of shortening the motor mount plate.

Yesterday I went out and the wind was 15 knots from the South which means lots of chop. My boat rode the roller coaster as usual but the motor stayed safely underwater. Maybe bigger waves would get it out but it's a great improvement.

One disadvantage is that I have to lower and raise the motor mount. I used to be able to just keep it at the lowest setting and only have to tilt the motor. It's a small price to pay to solve an unpleasant problem.