engine on my tender

lanerboy

lanerboy

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hi all

i have a small tender which my 11 year old son wants to play on, it has a yamaha 2.5hp petrol engine at the moment but i am worried this may be too much for him as he has never used one before.

what i was thinking was getting him one of these electric outboards to use which will not be as fast and get him used to steering it etc with this before i let him loose with the petrol version

what are your thoughts and do any of you use the electric versions

cheers shawn
 
lanerboy said:
hi all

i have a small tender which my 11 year old son wants to play on, it has a yamaha 2.5hp petrol engine at the moment but i am worried this may be too much for him as he has never used one before.

what i was thinking was getting him one of these electric outboards to use which will not be as fast and get him used to steering it etc with this before i let him loose with the petrol version

what are your thoughts and do any of you use the electric versions

cheers shawn
Click to expand...
All start somewhere... it has a killcord, and he neednt start in the marina and alone, right? No reason it needs to be dangerous with a bit of thought and practice together, unless you think he is a nutter anyway ;)
Main thing is that he and the prop doesnt mix, obviously. That can happen by accident, but probably more often happens through recklessness.
 
yes i know what you mean and of course i would be with him untill he was confident but just thought the electric version may be a bit safer to start with. i will take him out on it and see how he does i think 1st then go from there, still like the idea of the leccy ones though
 
Good idea! electric motors are great.

The parents in our marina have been letting their kids use tenders with leccy motors for ages.
Not fast and easy to handle:) added bonus if you let go of the tiller the prop stops turning.

Use a decent battery ... make sure its secure, charged and teach him to row just incase :rolleyes:

But beware, my neighbour let his 2 daughters out on a 10ft inflatable and the battery dripped acid on the floor:eek: We heard the pop from 200ft away, luckily it was just the air floor and they managed to paddle the thing home:D They now use a gel battery.

Neal

PS: When I was 11, I was knocking around in a 13ft grp Orkney type dinghy with a Johnson 9.9hp :cool:

PPS: Life jackets will be worn from habit won't they?
 
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A few years ago i purchased a minikota E outboard
primarily for this reason "Kiddie safety".
Also recharging is free showpower/geny .
No petrol on board (we have an E hob no gas ),
Its a bit lighter and easier to store .
Bat duration arround 4 hrs
Not as fast as a petrol and no tides in the Med-water is warm so more likely to have one kid in the water and the other pratting about in the tender
Also silent, +maintenace free.
so far no injuries or near misses
 
Portofino said:
A few years ago i purchased a minikota E outboard
primarily for this reason "Kiddie safety".
Also recharging is free showpower/geny .
No petrol on board (we have an E hob no gas ),
Its a bit lighter and easier to store .
Bat duration arround 4 hrs
Not as fast as a petrol and no tides in the Med-water is warm so more likely to have one kid in the water and the other pratting about in the tender
Also silent, +maintenace free.
so far no injuries or near misses
Click to expand...

like the sound of that :)
 
My kids are now 14 and 17 and have been around boats all their life. FWIW I wouldnt bother with an electric motor, far too much faff.

Teach him to row first with you in the boat, then let him go off rowing on his own. After he is really comfortable with the boat and oars start letting him use the engine with you in the boat. You need to teach him some basic engineering as well, make sure he understands the fuel system, choke and can start it on his own, you will let him go solo in the end.

Same advice as the others, kill cord, life jacket and make sure there is minimum friction on the accelerator so it returns to tick over on release.

My kids a couple of years ago.

Youtube Clicky
 
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If your lad is strong enough to pull-start the engine, then he should be ok to use it.

However, I would want to be sure that he can swim at least 50 yds in the sea, and that he can row the tender properly. Other safety issues like life jackets, knowing how to handle the petrol etc are also givens.
 
thanks for all the advise folks safety goes without saying my kids are the most important things to me and i would never put them in danger he will only be using it in shallow water with me next to him untill he has full confidence and i am 100% happy with his actions when using the tender

anyone else got any experience of the electric outboards and how they find them compared to petrol
 
lanerboy said:
thanks for all the advise folks safety goes without saying my kids are the most important things to me and i would never put them in danger he will only be using it in shallow water with me next to him untill he has full confidence and i am 100% happy with his actions when using the tender

anyone else got any experience of the electric outboards and how they find them compared to petrol
Click to expand...

We tried one a dealer lent to us - same reasons, kids (grand kids in our case) wanting to wizz about in the Marina. We had a 55??? output one (the biggest the dealer did) and it was gutless and pain with the battery etc.,.. and pushed you along at about the same speed as a duck! As others have said, if he can start the 2.5 engine and row - he should be fine. PB1 course sounds a very good idea too. Lifejacket/buoyancy aid, oars and kill cord a must.
 
Hi,

I'm in exactly the same situation. 3 kids, inflatable tender. So far we've been rowing. Newtown creek is particularly good for this.

I am definitely going to get a torqeedo electric outboard for the start of next season. (it's the only electric outboard i can find with an integral battery).
I don't want petrol on board and petrol outboards are heavy and need maintenance, oil etc.
Electric outboards are the future imho.

However, there is a clear downside - cost - but then again for me the benefits are worth it.

Regarding safety though, whichever you get there's still the spinning propeller ideally it would be good if they did one with a prop guard.

The battery comes off which helps with storage. They used to do one which folded into a bag, but not any more.

I had a chat with them at sibs about range and essentially if correct, the kids will probably get bored before the battery runs out.

Simon
 
Torqeedo vs Petrol outboards

We sell Torqeedo electric outboards, and Tohatsu petrol outboards. I am also a yachtie, and a parent, and to my mind - in the original post's context of a motor suitable for use by children - some of the advantages (of a Torqeedo) include:
- Much quieter than a petrol motor, so the children messing about in the dinghy in the early evening (or early morning) won't annoy your neighbours so much. Same applies to you, when taking the dog ashore etc!
- Much easier to use, just twist and go. No pulling starter cords (or flailing elbows knocking each other out), fiddling with chokes, flooded carburettors, etc.
- Waterproof, so if they flip the dinghy, drop the outboard in the water etc, your motor won't be wrecked.
- Integral battery, no wires running around the boat, no heavy batteries loose in boat (they should be strapped down but lots of people don't), no exposed terminals to short out/electrocute yourself on.
- Light to handle, as the battery and tiller are detachable. The "pass down from the big boat" weight, ie the bare motor weight, is only 9kg. There is no petrol outboard anywhere near that light (Honda & Suzuki do 2.5hp motors at approx 13kg; Yamaha, Tohatsu, Mercury & Mariner 2.5 all weigh approx 18kg. All the manufacturers quote dry weight so add another 1.5-2kg for oil and a full tank of fuel).
- No petrol fumes or spillage
- Digital panel with GPS data shows the real-time (inverse) relationship between speed and range. A real-world lesson in energy efficiency?
- Runs happily for long periods at low speeds for fishing, watching wildlife etc, without risk of stalling or "oiling up the plug".

Some of those advantages are specific to Torqeedos, some apply to electric outboards in general.

The disadvantages:
- Limited Range (at full power). It's quite simple, the battery fitted to the Torqeedo 1003S is 520Wh (Watt hours) and the motor is 1kW (1000 Watts). So if you run it flat out it will last half an hour; and if you run it half power it lasts an hour; and if you run it at one third power it lasts an hour and a half. Somewhere between one third and half power should push a typical small dinghy along at 3-4 knots, so your range at those speeds should be at least 3-4 nautical miles, which is enough for the way a lot of (but not all) people use their tenders. Efficient (eg longer, thinner) hulls will go further or faster or both. Doubling the power won't give anywhere near double the speed, so the range drops off quite fast once you exceed half power. Of course precise figures all depend on the type of boat, how heavily it's loaded, etc. But the main point is that if your 11 year old son treats the throttle as an on-off switch then he will only get half an hour on each charge of the battery.
- Less power. But also more torque low down. This is a bit like comparing diesel and petrol cars, more shove but less at the top end. A Torqeedo 1003 won't get a small inflatable on the plane, but it will push it, even very heavily loaded, at displacement speeds. Of course, in the context of a motor to put on the back of a dinghy for the kids to go playing, less power might also be in the advantage list.
- Cost. Typical selling price (as opposed to RRP) is just over double the price of a 2.5-3.5hp petrol outboard. However if you wish to keep the warranty on that petrol outboard you need to have it serviced annually by a dealer (typically £90 or so), whilst the Torqeedo has no service costs. It's a relatively minor consideration, but you also have to put petrol in the petrol outboard, and the electricity for the electric outboard will almost certainly cost less. So over a five year period the Torqeedo probably still works out more expensive, but by nothing like as much as the difference in initial purchase price.

If your only experience of an electric outboard is a cheap 12 volt "trolling motor" then please do not assume Torqeedos are the same, without having tried one.

Hope this is useful.

Ian, Nestaway Boats Ltd
 
I bought a Torqeedo, took it back after the first outing, had it on my Walker bay, to get any sort of range you had to go so slow, you would die of boredom.
Took it back and bought a Suzuki 2.5 for less than half the price.
 
I thought electric outboards were designed (initially at least) for very low speed 'trolling' whilst fishing... ie; use the petrol engine to get to where your going and then use the 'leccy' motor to hold position/maneuver around with out scaring the fish.

Neal
 
I taught daughter to use the tender when she was 11. usual safety drill and kit - especially the kill cord and propeller etc. Last year she (now 13) did her ICC on a 45 targa. (she can't have the certificate until she is 16 apparently and obviously isn't going anywhere without me) but now parks the tender and big boat embarrassingly well.

Made a big difference to her enjoyment of the boat, and she is able to be much more helpful. Partly because of training and greater knowledge and partly age. As long as you teach them well and make sure they don't fool around with dire warnings of mobile phone removal I am sure your son will love it.

Petrol versus electric - water is dangerous either way, the more they know the safer they will be. Teach them to respect it and understand it and all will be (hopefully) well. Might be useful experience later for the dreaded "can I borrow the car please" phase.
 
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Yes, the vast majority of electric outboards - Minn Kota etc - are designed for trolling; Torqeedo are the only mainstream manufacturer (that we know of) who offer an electric outboard that is (I should say "we consider to be") a viable alternative as your main source of propulsion.

We don't say the integral battery models (the 503/1003 range) are a viable alternative if you want to make very long trips, but they do achieve what a large number of boaters seem to want. And have many other points in their favour as previously discussed.

To SpottyDog5 - without knowing specifically which model of Torqeedo (and which battery) you tried - it's strange that it wouldn't drive a Walker Bay at a decent speed/range. The 1003S model (from 2011 on) has a 520Wh battery and I would guess should get a Walker Bay 8 or 10 up to (or near) hull speed with half power or less, so you should get at least an hour's run-time and therefore a range of approx 4 nautical miles at approx 4 knots (the speed limit in many harbours/rivers and quite a long way for most uses of a tender). Disproportionately more if you slowed down to 3 or even 3.5 knots; disproportionately less if you went flat out (probably 5-5.5 knots on a WB). Obviously the earlier/smaller capacity batteries will achieve less.

As a general point, if worried about range you could, and many customers do, buy a second battery. Then if you use one battery or less on the outward journey, you know you have enough capacity in the other one to get back (with caveats about tide and wind conditions etc).

I should probably shut up now, we are a Torqeedo dealer and don't wish to be accused of using the forum for commercial purposes. But for anyone thinking seriously about a Torqeedo some dealers do offer demonstrations, and sometimes even on customers' own boats if it's an unusual type of craft and nobody's quite sure what the result will be without trying it.

Ian, Nestaway Boats Ltd
 
I've got the Flover brand. It's quiet (quite funny to surprise other boaters!) and easy to store. I've got the 55tgs which they call "the big daddy"! I would not get any of the smaller ones unless you are using it on a pond! With mine you still have to be cautious of tide but that can be a good thing for your kids to learn anyway.
For the money, £250, you can't go wrong in my opinion. I will at some stage go for the Torqeedo though.

Sheeees electric!
 
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