tender outboard recommendations

BruceK

BruceK

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My 1985 Evinrude 8hp 2 stroke finally threw in the towel with a broken shift selector.
Looking for recommendations on a light trouble free outboard. Doesnt have to be a speed demon. Just something light and reliable. No leccy motors please. No electrics on pontoon.
 
Even though electric outboards can be charged with solar, they are only for people who don’t want petrol onboard.
My previous outboard was a Honda 2.3 four stroke air cooled. I found that trying to leave a beach that has a surf with a water cooled outboard was impossible. By the time you had started it you were spun around on the beach again and had to kill the motor while you reposition the tender. With an air cooled you can start it and then get the tender in the water (writing it down, it does seem dangerous!)
 
If you can find one a second hand Tohatsu 9.8 2 stroke is lightish and loads of fun. They do come up from time to time on ebay and gumtree
 
My current Mercury 5hp two-stroke weighs 20kg.

It will get me planing, or Mrs FP + Mini FP planing.
But not planing with us all in the tender at the same time.
They’re not available new any more, but they do pop up for sale every now and again.
Mariner 5hp two stroke is identical.

Various other manufacturers marinised the same base engine, which is Tohatsu based.
Yamaha would also be a good choice.

A brand new Merc 8hp weighs 40kg!
6hp would be 26kg.
 
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Had a Suzuki 2.5 and it was a great 4 stroke unit. Lightweight and pokey for its size. I’d certainly have one again. It am now an electric convert!
 
Bigplumbs said:
If you can find one a second hand Tohatsu 9.8 2 stroke is lightish and loads of fun. They do come up from time to time on ebay and gumtree
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Completely agree this recommendation - I've got one of these, only weighs 26kg so you can pick it up with one hand, and it goes really well. I use it on the OE 2.7m Valiant rib that came with my Targa 40, and it will plane even with two 'big boned' passengers... :encouragement:
 
“... only weighs 26kg ...”

I can feel the discs between my lower vertebrae compressing by just thinking about the extra 6kg.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Yes the 9.9 2 stroke Tohatsu has always been very attractive. It weighs about the same as my current broken 8hp 2 stroke. One of the issues I have though is in a rolling sea, and it doesn't have to be big, 0.3m or so, transferring the OB from the tender onto the swim platform can be daunting as the swim platform rises and falls, sometimes catching the tender underneath. I have dropped the current OB into the brinny twice on these occasions when losing my balance stepping up from the tender to the swim platform as ~27kg is still really a two handed job under these circumstances. (Solid ground you can walk with her in one hand but not lift and balance while standing on a bobbing tender.)
I have lost a fair amount of strength since my illness and my wife is petrified I'm going to have another heart attack when she sees me struggling with the current unit. So as a concession to speed I am looking for something light, sub 20kg that I can "curl" in one hand and that is reliable enough to push a 3m tender with 2 adults, 2 kids, a dog and all the beach paraphernalia comfortably and safely to the beach, or fight a 3-4 knt estuary current for boarding the boat on our river berth where if it were to die on us would put us in deep doo doo indeed.

Is there such a beast?
 
Bigplumbs said:
or get a lifting davit on the main boat
Click to expand...

That has been a consideration but as Simpson Davits so the motor never has to leave the tender. The construction and space of the swim platform is such that I cannot have a permanent lifting davit for OB use only and still put on the tender using weaver snap davits. More reason to keep it light. Only issue I have is to get to the swim platform underneath to reinforce it to take the Simpson davits is a engines out job. I am hoping I never have to take the engines out and the day I do I probably wont also be able to afford putting in the davits. Such is the irony of life :D
 
I used a single davit on the swim platform for putting the outboard onto the tender after it was launched. The davit is small and light and lives in the lazaret until needed. I put the small ss fitting in the swim platform close to the edge to give it enough reach to the center of the tenders transom. After use the davit is stowed again and the deck fitting on the swim platform is unobtrusive.
https://marinestore.co.uk/Davits_For_Tenders_up_to_100kg.html
Another place to fit a davit is against the rails
 
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