Any Girls Start and Operate the 4 Cycle Honda 2hp Outboard?

[Dulcesuenos]

Had a honda 2hp it was the best running most reliable and easy to start. I always drained the carb/ ran it dry if it was going to sit more then a month, and kept it sprayed with Boeshield. They are awesome!!!! Not too loud, and powerful.
We sold it with our last boat / sigh, now have a Nissan 2.5 and Evinrude 15hp both the wife can start no problem. The evinrude does have elect start we use a small lawn tractor batt bu tit pulls easy for her anyways...

[Sailmonkey]

I've watched 90lb Guatemalan women start 75hp Yamaha's with a pull starter......it's all in the technique, they'll get it if they want to.

[Ex-Calif]

Parsun 6hp 4-stroke.

There are two techniques. Hot and cold. Starts first pull everytime so far - 1 year old. It knows not gender...

When it no longers starts on first pull I will replace the spark plug and/or overhaul the carb.

These things are too simple to give folks the amount of grief reported. If your outboard takes 20 pulls you have the wrong technique or you need to do some maintenance.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Free Agent

We have a 6hp Nissan outboard on the tender and my girls have a hard time pulling the starter rope to start it.

Very close to downsizing to the Honda 2 HP for several good reasons,, the most being it may be easier for the girls to start.

Any girls on here use the Honda 2 HP 4 cycle/stroke and do you have any takes?

Easy to start?
Is it noisy because it's air cooled?
Encountered any demons?

Thank you for your takes.

Not an girl but I really like the auto-compression release on the manual start of my NISSAN 15 HP 4-stroke. It is still a hand-full but possible.

I also have an antique 64 Mustang with stick shift. Left leg larger than right.

[Kettlewell]

Four-stroke outboards demand very clean fuel or they won't work. The low speed jet on these things is so tiny that the teensiest bit of crud will stick in there and make them very hard to start. Two-strokes will eat through much cruddier fuel and even some water. So, the trick to keeping a 4-stroke working well is to always filter your gas, and if possible install a full-sized spin--on canister type fuel filter on your dinghy transom. Also, add the proper amount of StaBil to every tank of gas and be very careful about letting water get in there. Modern ethanol gas starts to go bad after a month and you need some stabilizer in it. If your tank gets low it is worth it to pour the very bottom off and see what it looks like, and that will also get any gross crud and water out of the tank. Chances are if your 4-stroke is hard to start (in addition to being hard to pull) the carb needs cleaning. You should teach yourself how to do it and keep the tools in the dink. On my old Yammy 9.9 4-stroke I got so I could remove the carb and clean it and be going again in ten minutes, because I got a lot of practice despite having proper filters on there.

[bobconnie]

And remember if ya get a 2 stroke, do not use gas with ETHANOL it's Death for 2 strokes no matter what additives you might use in it !! Just a reminder

[thinwater]

Assuming the engine is tuned properly....

I question whether a child so young and so small that they cannot pull the cord should be operating a power boat. In many states there are minimum ages and in many states there are testing requirements. Personally, I believe younger than ~ 13 is too young. There are reason crossing guards start at 12 and driving at 16, with restricted license until 18.

Yes, they may be able to, but are they sufficiently mature? Most would say no.

I don't mean to offend--some kids grow up around boats. My girl did and she often helmed and sailed the boat and drove the dingy when she was younger... but with some supervision. I wouldn't have wanted her running off with the dingy, alone and responsible for all that can happen, until 13. She was plenty strong by then and had mastered the choke and minor starting difficulties. She would also pull-start the 18hp on my last boat.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Assuming the engine is tuned properly....

I question whether a child so young and so small that they cannot pull the cord should be operating a power boat. In many states there are minimum ages and in many states there are testing requirements. Personally, I believe younger than ~ 13 is too young. There are reason crossing guards start at 12 and driving at 16, with restricted license until 18.

Yes, they may be able to, but are they sufficiently mature? Most would say no.

I don't mean to offend--some kids grow up around boats. My girl did and she often helmed and sailed the boat and drove the dingy when she was younger... but with some supervision. I wouldn't have wanted her running off with the dingy, alone and responsible for all that can happen, until 13. She was plenty strong by then and had mastered the choke and minor starting difficulties. She would also pull-start the 18hp on my last boat.

Most respectfully disagree.

Parents know when their kids aready. Not the state.

As a kid we were landlocked. A milk run was 20 minutes across the bay. At 10 I was taking the runabout across the bay to buy milk for us and cigs for mum. Oh, along with my 9 y/o brother and 4 y/o nephew.

If we couldn't go out on the water alone we wouldn't get out.

[shabbab]

My little girl is 6 and can easily start our 2stroke Mariner 8hp when it's warm and most often when the engine is cold. Warm is always one pull, cold sometimes two but never more nuless something is wrong.

So this OB is really simple to start.

But she won't operate the dink herself of course.

[Hearts Content]

I have the Honda 4 stroke, 2HP engine. It's really easy to start and my kids can easily do it.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Most respectfully disagree.

Parents know when their kids aready. Not the state.

As a kid we were landlocked. A milk run was 20 minutes across the bay. At 10 I was taking the runabout across the bay to buy milk for us and cigs for mum. Oh, along with my 9 y/o brother and 4 y/o nephew.

If we couldn't go out on the water alone we wouldn't get out.

a. Some parents do. Many are clueless. Though I don't love the state, we're just going to need to disagree on this.

b. Yeah, if it's hard to start something needs fixing. I've been on both sides of that. Plugs, carb, something.

But mostly I agree with the statement that if they can't start it, they're not ready. They need to be able to deal with cold and hot start. They need to be able to row back and think about what a long trip down-wind might lead to.

And as an aside, some of the "stand up to pull" statments (not from you), for kids, are a little unnerving. Many smaller engines lack a neutral switch, which leads to a very dangerous result. If they need to stand, again, something is wrong. Kneel in such a way that there is room to rotate the shoulders, yes.

[Seafarer24]

I have a 9.9HP Yamaha 4-stroke on my Island Packet and that engine is a breeze to pull-start. Of course, I have a great big cockpit to stand in and the transom to brace against, but it rarely takes more than one moderate pull once I get it to the compression stroke.

I plan on replacing my Mercury 2.5HP 2-stroke with the Honda B2FD 4-stroke just to get a simpler motor. Already overheated and cracked the head on the Mercury once because the lousy impeller lost a limb.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by thinwater

a. Some parents do. Many are clueless. Though I don't love the state, we're just going to need to disagree on this.

b. Yeah, if it's hard to start something needs fixing. I've been on both sides of that. Plugs, carb, something.

But mostly I agree with the statement that if they can't start it, they're not ready. They need to be able to deal with cold and hot start. They need to be able to row back and think about what a long trip down-wind might lead to.

And as an aside, some of the "stand up to pull" statments (not from you), for kids, are a little unnerving. Many smaller engines lack a neutral switch, which leads to a very dangerous result. If they need to stand, again, something is wrong. Kneel in such a way that there is room to rotate the shoulders, yes.

most modern engines these days have a lock mechanism,making it impossable to start the engine in gear,making it a safety feature for young and old.

[atoll]

as thinwater so eloquently stated,when kids are ready you will know.

my two kids were never allowed to use the 25 hp untill they were in their teens.

but we also had a rowing dingy that they were allowed to row from a very early age,they soon learnt about the difficulties of rowing upwind back to the yacht at anchor !!

[sabray]

When they can't start it you have them row. They will soon become strong enough to pull the motor over brazen enough to disassemble the carburetor or smart enough to dunk the thing so you have to buy a new one. You win in every case. Just nit so much if you buy a new outboard.