chris-s
Active member
We have a 3D UL250 'rib' tender, this has an aluminium floor so a bit like a baby-rib, only weighs 25kg and is rated for upto 8hp. Its main use is as a tender out to our swing mooring (~ 200-300m depending on tide) on the Fal river, its stored onshore in a dinghy rack, occasionally towed behind us if we aren't going far (max falmouth to helford) and occasionally used for trips up/down the Fal. When we bought it a few years ago we already had a new Mariner 3.5 tender outboard which generally does us fine (albeit not the easiest to start, sometimes just an absolute pig despite lots of servicing/attention/carb cleaning/running carb dry/super-unleaded/fresh fuel/clean filters/carb adjustment), but sometimes we would like a bit more grunt to go a little further and still get back before dark and something that the wife can confidently start.
Originally we were looking at older Yamaha 6 to 8hp two strokes (lightweight, reliable and IME easy to start) and had considered just using our old Yam 5hp two stroke, but its a long shaft, and despite firing up on the third pull after being sat in the garage for four years, with the amount of oily scum it left in the barrel after a half hour run, I'm not sure I could bring myself to use it long term (says he with ablative antifoul and dirty diesel van).
And so it looks like I'm just going to go for a new 6hp fourstroke, but they are so heavy (current Mariner 3.5 is 17kg) . On the shortlist are Suzuki (because it is only 24kg), Yamaha and Honda, the latter two weighing in at around 27kg. I guess the 3kg difference doesn't really amount to much and unloading the dinghy before pulling it up the beach (on its trolley) would easily negate the extra overall weight gain.
Is there a general consensus over which of these three is the better engine/better choice, or is it (as is so often the case) that there are good/bad experiences of all engines?
Before anyone suggests it, right now, electric is not an option (budget, performance, charging) for this use case (but it might be for another).
Thanks
Chris
Originally we were looking at older Yamaha 6 to 8hp two strokes (lightweight, reliable and IME easy to start) and had considered just using our old Yam 5hp two stroke, but its a long shaft, and despite firing up on the third pull after being sat in the garage for four years, with the amount of oily scum it left in the barrel after a half hour run, I'm not sure I could bring myself to use it long term (says he with ablative antifoul and dirty diesel van).
And so it looks like I'm just going to go for a new 6hp fourstroke, but they are so heavy (current Mariner 3.5 is 17kg) . On the shortlist are Suzuki (because it is only 24kg), Yamaha and Honda, the latter two weighing in at around 27kg. I guess the 3kg difference doesn't really amount to much and unloading the dinghy before pulling it up the beach (on its trolley) would easily negate the extra overall weight gain.
Is there a general consensus over which of these three is the better engine/better choice, or is it (as is so often the case) that there are good/bad experiences of all engines?
Before anyone suggests it, right now, electric is not an option (budget, performance, charging) for this use case (but it might be for another).
Thanks
Chris
