I've had a couple of questions so thought I'd add a bit of detail on how I modified my trolling motor for remote steering and throttle.
The first step was was coupling the trolling motor to the sailboat tiller. There was a good reason for this because our Aquarius 23 has a shoal draft keel and it really didn't want to change direction quickly. That matters when you're coming in to the pontoon at an angle because at low speed more often than not I'd kind of do a slow speed collision. By coupling the outboard to the tiller handle so they turn together, we could turn the boat so easily, especially when she was barely moving.
All our outboards (Tohatsu Sailpro 6, Pelican EMP 120 1KW, and Haswing Ventura (2KW)) all have remote tiller connections. On the EMP120 the tiller connection consisted of a modified fishing rod holder that clamps on to a boat rail. I enlarged the hole for the rail clamp, and added a stainless steel rod with a quick connect ball joint fitting.
The linkage arm is solid.
Coupling the tiller and trolling motor is easy, the quick release ball joints mean it's easy to fit and remove.
The next step was to fit a remote throttle. I got the throttle from Pelican, but I would have had to drill a hole in the motor housing and fit a socket. On a round housing, that just wasn't going to fly. I ended up making a "plug" to replace the tiller assembly, and use the plug to connect in the remote throttle wire.
This takes 5-10 minutes to fit, and the same amount of time to remove and replace with the original tiller assembly.
The modified remote throttle kit is basically just the reverse of Pelican kit from a wiring viewpoint.
This meant fitting the socket to the remote throttle body and redoing the wiring.
The motor ends up looking quite clean.
Assembled.
I'd tank tested things, and it was time to go sailing.
