You say that swapping the tender o/b for a long shaft makes the tender ineffectual...not sure what kind of crawling up perfectly flat bottomed non-tidal creeks you are planning on doing but..../QUOTE]
On our inflatable, a long shaft 6hp motor just wanted to fold the tender in half above 1/4 throttle.
Anything above 3hp seems to be completely ineffectual, in the sense that my wife can't start it.
My 31' yacht does 5 knots with her 2hp Honda outboard, in flat water and no wind. She's a "Hai 2000", weighs 1700kg, but has a very narrow hull, only 6'3" beam. Think Dragon class, but narrower. She has such low freeboard that a short shaft engine is fine, but I doubt I'd get far if there were any waves.
You say that swapping the tender o/b for a long shaft makes the tender ineffectual...not sure what kind of crawling up perfectly flat bottomed non-tidal creeks you are planning on doing but..../QUOTE]
On our inflatable, a long shaft 6hp motor just wanted to fold the tender in half above 1/4 throttle.
Anything above 3hp seems to be completely ineffectual, in the sense that my wife can't start it.
My inflatable is an Avon R380 with 3 rigid wood bottom panels and an inflatable keel and it's fine. However, I will concur that it does seem to bury the transom a lot to start with, and I need weight well forward to get it up on the plane, but once it's there it's a bit of a laugh to be honest!!
