Lightweight Outboard v Electric?

[conks01]

Hi,

I need an outboard for my tender and have been looking at 40lbs elec thrust motors but bearing in mind I'm on a mud mooring in a river mouth in Burnham I'm not convinced this will be sufficient?

I was wondering if a better option would be to go for something like a Seagull?

Can anyone guide me re this please.

Thanks

 

[bitbaltic]

There's going to be a bit of a price difference between a (modern) electric outboard and an old seagull! Personally I'm very pleased with my little 2hp Honda-4 stroke, 12kg- and I'd recommend one of those. Call Steve at http://www.evansmarineservice.co.uk and he'll probably be able to do something second hand in the region of £250. No connection other than as a satisfied customer.

 

[DuncanHall]

I have an electric outboard which to date i have found to be sufficient for use in the bristol channel. However its max speed is about 2.5 kn. that said its quicker than rowing. I use an 80ah battery which has been more than sufficient. Its conected in series with two 110ah house batteries when not being use for the outboard.

A simple test of sufficiency is that if you can row to where you want to go then the electric outboard will be fine.

 

[Murv]

Pros and cons to both.
I've got a fore and aft mooring in the Swale and whilst I can row to it, I have really struggled in the past against wind and tide (it's maybe half a mile from the ramp)
I've got a little 2.5 suzuki which makes very short work of it, but it's a chore with the petrol and flushing it out afterwards.
I've also got a 64lb thrust electric outboard which I reach for 9 times out of 10.
It is heavy, and the combined weight with the 80AH battery is probably higher than the petrol, but it's just so convenient.
If buying again, I'd probably get a smaller battery, but you'd have to work out the power consumption and your run times to see what you'd need.
I've never struggled with the electric, but there have been occasions when I'm not sure that a smaller one would have fared so well.

 

[trapezeartist]

I think you would need a whole flock of seagulls harnessed up. Oh, you meant one of those ancient, noisy, oily, polluting, unreliable anachronisms. Definitely not one of them. The last one I used got from Penarth marina to just short of Penarth pier before breaking down terminally. If you want a small two-stroke the 2.5 or 3.3 Mariner takes some beating, and a secondhand one won't be expensive. Or a new small 4 stroke.

 

[graham]

I have a3.5 Tohatsu which has been a great engine both on the tender and also it will push my heavyish 25 ft yacht if needed.

I used seagulls in the past but wouldn't go bac to one now. They leak fuel and oil into your car boot ,you need to be a seagull enthusiast to enjoy using one.

 

[RupertW]

We swear by our Torqueedo - simply very much lighter (especially in it's three parts) than our 4 stroke 5hp which will we probably give away/sell as we haven't used it for 2 seasons now. The LiOn battery is much lighter than a lead one would be too. But if I had a current or tide to motor into regularly or more than half a mile each way to the boat I'd probably stick with conventional outboard. We use about 10% of battery each way in a typical quarter mile, so need to plug it into main ship's batteries to recharge every couple of days.