Crabing

[Rickmotox]

Hi. I hope someone could help me as I'm new to boating. I bought a inflatable tender in the summer with an electric motor. It was fine but i have just fitted a 4hp yamaha engin and now the boat wants to go diagonally. I'm not sure why.

 

[Firefly625]

Hi. I hope someone could help me as I'm new to boating. I bought a inflatable tender in the summer with an electric motor. It was fine but i have just fitted a 4hp yamaha engin and now the boat wants to go diagonally. I'm not sure why.

you often see tenders going sideways, normally because there is only one person in the tender and they insist on sitting on one side therefore the weight of that single user pushes that side of the boat far deeper in the water causing the tender to turn that way, so to make the tender go straight the user has to steer the outboard in the opposite direction therefore causing that issue.

Couple of cures;
1. get a mate to sit the other side and balance the tender up
2. sit in the middle of the tender

with an electric outboard the weight of the battery may have helped balance up the boat depending where is was, also the weight of the outboard would have been far less so the transom was higher, and the 4hp outboard would be more powerful therefore lifting the bow of the tender higher thus further reducing straight line stability..

 

[Rickmotox]

Thanks that does make sense. At least its human error.