Hi
Sounds crazy but hear me out: I am thinking about
buying a yacht but almost all of them have really old inboards. The
price of getting a new inboard
diesel is almost as much as the yacht itself. This is for a 28 footer. So I thought: what if I have two strong brackets made, buy two 6 HP long-shaft outboards, and get rid of the inboard altogether? Two outboards are each lighter than a bigger
single one, and this was the initial thought of having two rather than a
single outboard.
Crazy idea? Maybe not, I think there are definitely some advantages:
1. Even if there are two outboards, they will be cheaper to buy than a new inboard, especially because there are no
installation cost, except a couple of brackets.
2. You have two engines, if one breaks down you still have another one left.
3. Because each of the two outboards is light, one can be used for the
dinghy.
4. Easy to replace off-the-shelf in most countries.
5. The weight is likely to be somewhat less (together less than 100 KG) than an inboard.
6. You do away with an inboard prop, which is a drag, can get caught on things like seaweed, and could leak.
7.
Cooling is all internal and does not make use of raw seawater which can corrode or block things when there are algae in the
water for example.
8. A lot of space saved where the inboard used to be (this can be used for storing jerrycans with fuel).
9. You can use them for
steering if there is something wrong with the
rudder.
Negatives:
1. Higher
fuel consumption (outboards do not run on
diesel - unless there are some, please let me know, could not find any on the web)
2.
Fuel is more flammable.
3. You may have to mount / unmount the outboards from the stern bracket, especially in a storm.
4. Even if they have a long prop shaft, they may not reach the
water properly especially in big waves and when sailing
offshore.
What do you think, any comments? Anyone know of people who have done
offshore sailing using outboards (on small sailboats of course).
Thanks
Hugo