The small ICE outboard.

The one on ebay is not doing the seller any favours.
No info about how it came to be 'not working' or where he got it or why it wasn't covered by warranty etc.
They seem to come with a 5 year warranty, but that's only for the first owner.

I hope my Yamaha keeps going for another couple of years, there might be some more affordable electric outboards by then.
Otherwise I will be tempted to build my own....
 
B27 said:
The one on ebay is not doing the seller any favours.
No info about how it came to be 'not working' or where he got it or why it wasn't covered by warranty etc.
They seem to come with a 5 year warranty, but that's only for the first owner.

I hope my Yamaha keeps going for another couple of years, there might be some more affordable electric outboards by then.
Otherwise I will be tempted to build my own....
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Or maybe not stating the history *is* doing him favours IYSWIM.
 
rgarside said:
That sounds very good. What size solar and wind gen do you have? Boathook mentioned using a 100W solar panel, but I'm not sure whether that is permanently mounted or not. I have not figured out how to permanently fit any solar panels to my 27' boat that lives on a swinging mooring. I have a 20W panel that keeps the batteries up on the mooring, and can help when not sailing. I don't really want to fit a wind generator, and I haven't found the space for Bouba's 6KVA generator yet! The engine is a 1GM10 with a 35A alternator, so at the moment I can just about keep up with the electrical consumption by motoring in and out of anchorages, but not too much spare for charging anything new.
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Its the epropulsion 100W portable fold up panel. I looked at much cheaper ones on ebay and amazon but was a bit unsure about quality. It connects upto the epropulsion 12V charger to charge the battery. I've also made up leads so that I can connect it via a controller to put charge into the boat batteries for times when my boat solar panels are struggling. The boat solar panels may well be another project for this winter.
 
In reply to dgadee.

Assuming you need 1hp = 750w to propel a tender, 259w/h will give you 20min running.

I am quite happy for my assumptions to be corrected.
 
B27 said:
But, like electric cars, expensive and prone to causing 'range anxiety'.

as with cars, most of the time, most of us don't need much range or power, but you have to plan for the most demanding use you reasonably expect. If I never expected to need to get from a distant mooring to town in Salcombe, against wind and tide, I'd probably just get some better oars.
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With our Spirit 1 Evo we got from Salcombe to Kingsbridge and back with plenty of charge left. Or from Fowey to Lostwithiel and back. That is enough for me.

And we could recharge it with a portable solar, or when we run the main auxiliary engine.

Range anxiety exists. But so does "setting sail" anxiety. We learn to deal with it.
 
Bouba said:
There’s no form of propulsion that is totally reliable....except oars🤣😂...kings of unreliability are small outboards
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Actually oars can break too. Or at least the flimsy ones that come with inflatable tenders. Particularly the rowlocks.
 
ithet said:
In reply to dgadee.

Assuming you need 1hp = 750w to propel a tender, 259w/h will give you 20min running.

I am quite happy for my assumptions to be corrected.
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What you need to propel a tender will vary a lot.
300W is a pretty serious effort on a rowing machine.
A 1HP horse pulls a canal narrow boat.
How fast?, how long is the tender? waves? wind?

250Wh is probably fine for a couple of evenings in the Yealm.
I doubt it's fine for a rough day in Salcombe.
I'm not in the market for an outboard which does the easy bits which I could row, I'm looking for one which doesn't restrict me much.

I love the idea of it being light, not smelling of petrol, being near silent etc etc, but it has to do the job. The whole job.
I'm not keen to pay more for something which does significantly less.
I can see that the bigger electrics do everything which a lot of people need though.
I will be quite happy when small IC engines are a thing of the past, I'd be quite pleased if every petrol strimmer, chainsaw and mower in suburbia went missing.
 
Yes, maybe a better folding/collapsible dinghy (not inflatable) and oars would be the best solution.
 
dgadee said:
Yes, maybe a better folding/collapsible dinghy (not inflatable) and oars would be the best solution.
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I've played around with a trolling motor and lithium battery on my dinghy. It worked quite well, but being a hard dinghy with good oars I have gradually got used to rowing more and more, because it's actually quite pleasant compared to rowing an inflatable. And on longer trips in stronger conditions I'll use the petrol o/b. So the electric one has ended up somewhere in the middle and rarely gets used now.
I had originally hoped that SWMBO would like it, but she's mastered the 2 stroke now and also seems to enjoy being conveyed around under oar power by her poor husband.
 
As one (some) of the posters above said: the quietness and ease of operation are real clinchers.
So far, reliability has been much better than that of the Suzuki.
 
dunedin said:
And price, and consequently theft risk.
I recognise the convenience benefits, and in the wider scheme of things might consider biting the bullet and paying a couple of grand for an electric outboard. BUT I don’t because I fear it would be too much of a worry when we leave the dinghy and/or mother ship unattended.
Our eBay purchase outboard lives on the tender stern from April to October, and regularly left unattended on the dinghy when we go ashore. There is no way I want to detach a battery and take it on hikes with me. And I don’t want to have to take the outboard off the dinghy, which sits on davits, when we leave the boat.
Also, there are quite a few reports of slight issues with some electric motors. Not common but somewhat pricey when they happen. Hence the running costs may prove more than my eBay purchase which just jets a new spark plug every 2 years and a sip of gearbox oil every 4-5 years. Oh and an impeller as a 20 year birthday celebration.
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My new to me boat came with a hardly used £2k Torqeedo, but because of the reasons you state I'd rather stick with my Yamaha outboard. It's surplus to requirements so needs selling.
 
dgadee said:
Or at least ones which don't leak air.
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At risk of thread drift, our cheap Waveline air floor tender was inflated in late March this year and used extensively all summer. Not needed any pumping up since March.
And gets rowed extensively for enjoyment. Rows fine as far as I am concerned. Wouldn’t win at Henley but equally I wouldn’t dream of swapping for a rigid dinghy, as would be massively worse for stability, capacity and bump absorption.
I wonder if people who complain about inflatables not being able to be rowed have the wrong boat (not an air floor with V) or the wrong technique?
 
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