Which tiddly outboard?

boatmike

boatmike

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On the "for sale" board I have a 4 HP Yam which I am trying to swap for a smaller one, the object being to reduce weight. Power is not a problem as I also have an Avon Riblite with a 9.5 HP on it to go any distance. This is for a tiddly rubberdubby just to go ashore and pack away in a locker when not in use. If I don't get to swap it I might sell it and buy new and am attracted to the little Honda 4 stroke 2.3 (on paper at least) As it is not water cooled so won't furr up and should put up with short trips better being a 4 stroke. Anyone have one? Opinions please? Any good? Any others perhaps better?
 
Get the mankiest battered looking one you can find.

I had a choice of three used Mercury's when I bought mine, all had been reconditioned by a local marine engineer, both he and his assistant were shocked when I bought the one with battered and scratched cowling.

I just don't think I could wander into town from an anchorage and leave a brand new motor on the tender and they are far to heavy to take with you.

Just a thought.
 
having used the slightly older Honda 2hp 4 stroke for 1/2 a season I can say I am pleased with it, the only faults have been user error (you have to put petrol in it and don't lay it down that way!). The major drawback for me is the noise - a quiet potter up the river from Bucklers Hard would've been better with a quieter engine (preferablly electric!!), transfering and running around generally though - it is a good little workhorse... and sat very nicely on our 2.6m inflatable (solid transom)
The main advantage with the unit is the ability to idle without drive - very handy when your trying to come alongside or waiting for the traffic to ease so you can cross the fairway....
 
hmm - good logic there - we used a bike lock to secure our outboard both on the transom and on the tender whilst we were away from the vessels - more of a deterant than anything ...

Oh - just though of another of the pluses for the honda - it has a kill chord - so if the helm goes overboard it stops the engine - quite handy for those prone to accidents!
 
I've had the early model for 6 years now, and had no trouble with it. These early models had some fittings which were not stainless & rusted, they could be replaced under warranty, but I never bothered. I change the engine & gearbox oil every year, but other than that I haven't touched it - don't even know where the spark plug is! However long it's been left, it always starts with a couple of pulls. And best of all, no salted up waterways!
 
For anyone who wants a kill cord there is my Honda one on the sandy bottom of St Peters Port by the visitors pontoons (and the Honda Dealer is miles inland!). The lesson is put the kill cord round the handle or if long enough to your wrist before trying to start the outboard.

This kill cord is keeping the new diving knife (that I urgently used before tying it to the sheath) and the base of a new masthead anchor/tricolour light company! (thankfully it was the lens that had fallen off so did not need the new base).

I have NEVER lost anything overboard except these 3 items all in St Peters Port.

Sorry, I tell fibs just remembered the Nokia mobile phone laying in about 2m of soft black mud in Morlaix.
 
We bought a very 2nd hand Yam 2hp from a bloke in the pub.

Up until last weekend it has always started first pull, apart from the time when it spent an hour or more submerged last year . . . after doing nothing other than bolting it on the pushpit and leaving it for 18 hours it needed three pulls.

Now (two years and umpteen miles later) I think it might welcome a new plug, so I will treat it.

I got it because I believe it is the lightest of all the light 2HP engines - weighs something like 9.5kg I believe. It is also alll scratched and battered looking, which is as someone else has commented an excellent anti-theft precaution.

- Nick
 
I bought a well used honda 4stroke 2 hp from the man who rents out boats on the river at wareham so as you can imagine it is very well used...but it fires first time every time even after the winter and runs like a dream. I've heard other good reports of these little engines and the hire boat man has replaced his with new ones of the same so cannot be too bad...Iain
 
Tradition requires...

that somebody says this, and it might as well be me...

...The Best Outboard Motor for the World is...

40_plus_small.jpg


Actually, I would not be parted from mine for anything!
 
Tohatsu ... provide the basis for many other makes as well ...

But my Mariner 2 must be the best little engine I have ever had general speaking .... the most reliable I had but worst for noise is the Seagull ...

Mariner 2 2T .... light, good runners, push small - medium flubbers along quite nicely .... mine was a second-hand job for about 150 notes ... only ever had waterways cleared by service guy once ... nothing else ...
 
Tend to agree with you. Said the same to a bloke in Cornwall once. He said "they can't pinch my outboard it's padlocked to the transom." Next day outboard and dinghy were gone..... doh!
Thats why I wanted to swap my 4 for a 2 in the first place rather than buy a new one I would have to worry about all the time. Although the 4 is in good nick heavier motors don't seem to walk like little ones. Very sad though when you think that they may not be nicked by yachties but I bet they are bought by yachties from the blokes that nick them.......
"I bought one from a man in a pub" sounds a bit suspect to me. Perhaps if we didn't they wouldn't get nicked......
 
Re: Tradition requires...

Oy yeah! And I bet you have an old wooden gaffer with a baby blake toilet and a paraffin stove too don't you? My Grandma wouldn't buy a TV with a remote control because she said it was an instrument of the devil......
 
Various truths ...

Boat Jumbles notorious for fingered goods ... but we buy and keep them going.

From guy in Pub ...

There was a good picture and caption in a mag some time ago ... showing a reasonably dressed guy walking along a marina pontoon just steppeed of a boat ... carrying an outboard. Caption underneath said "Do you know this guy - Do you care ?" The article allied to it had highlighted a fact that many in marinas do not know others and the scenario could be played out often without being caught ... frightening !!
 
Re: Tradition requires...

Nice thing about my Forty Featherweight is that it comes away easily from its transom mounting bracket. I can lift the motor sans-bracket one-handed from dinghy to the deck and leave the gubbins on the dinghy for towing.

I second the motion.
 
Re: Tradition requires...

[ QUOTE ]
Nice thing about my Forty Featherweight is that it comes away easily from its transom mounting bracket.

[/ QUOTE ] Is that an anti-theft device? ok as long as you don't forget it.
 
40- Seagull ...

The number of mount brackets lying around yards must far outweigh the number of SG's in use !! I have about 3 or 4 of them !! Must admit probably only one has the brass locking rod still in it !!

I liked Seagulls - still like Seagulls ... even though they are noisy - I find it a sound that brings in pictures of boating !! in the mind ..

They had a simple tilt system - simple on / off transom bracket etc. etc. As long as you tilted and turned engine so that filler cap was at top - no problem......

Bet that when all others have gone to their makers - Seagulls will still be chugging around without trouble - except from some environmentalist !!!

It's the Morris Minor of the boating world ...............
 
Re: Tradition requires...

Basically, yes. The idea is that you pull the pin, leave the bracket (useless without the Seagull) on the transom and carry the (now quite a bit lighter) Seagull (useless without the bracket) up the hard.

A bit like leaving the oars in the boat and putting the rowlocks in your pocket.

Oh, and they don't use a shear pin!
 
Everlastingly simple, environmentalist Seagull ...

Rumour has it that you can get bio-degradable, environmetally friendly, two stroke oil, now. (Mind you, I wonder if castor oil, a la WW1 aero engine, would work?_
 
Re: Tradition requires...

I bought a Seagull "forty-minus" 25 years ago.

The fuel tank was pressed steel thinly coated with dark blue plastic. If you layed the motor down in the obvious way (tank down) the plastic wore through on about the third time and the tank then started to go rusty, pushing off the coating.

The tube the drive shaft goes through was mild steel chrome plated. Like the handlebars on my 50s pushbike, the rust got in and pushed off the chrome.

The big wide aluminium tube that took the exhaust was not protected or anodised and rapidly collected a white corroded appearance.All the nuts and bolts were steel and went rusty straight away.

The prop blades were straight radial and collected any weed that was around into a big ball and thrust ceased.

The motor vibrated so much that the float in the carb didn't regulate the fuel so consumption was dependent not on speed but only on how wide you opened the fuel tap.

Passengers in the dinghy soon got fed up with being dinged by the knot on the end of the pull cord.

But it did have a magnificent cast bronze transom bracket with stainless screws and fixing rod which I still have despite the rest of the abortion going to the dump. Trying to think of a use for them.

Since the 80s I've used those long wooden things that came with the dinghy, but I think I might go for a Yammie 2 if the need arises again.

Geoff
 
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