Outboard Too Large - Buyer’s Remorse

[secondhand Rose]

Had a 15hp Yamaha 4 stroke for 5 years and fought the weight thing continuously. Especially pulling it up on a beach, which we did daily twice with the dog. Corrosion problems resulted in a change, and we switched to a 15 hp 2-stroke, 35 lbs lighter. So much easier to handle all around, and we still have the speed when we need. And I have gotten on plane with 4 adults aboard with our Walker Bay RIB. Have gotten use to mixing gas and oil and it's no big deal. The 4 stroke 15's are just too heavy for comfortable use with a 10 ft dinghy. I would recommend a 15 2 stroke over a 9.9 four stroke, for the power, speed, and simplicity.


Vieques- cruiser crime 2015?

[SVJennie]

My situation is somewhat similar and I am still wrestling with it. I too don't like the idea of the weight of the 15 hp outboard, and I also have a Caribe. Having done a bit of cruising, I like the 15 hp to extend my cruising range - it allows me to go to places with the Caribe where my deep draft vessel can't. However, I don't always need the express train to get around, so I also have a 6 hp (sized to match a currently owned aluminum RIB) to use as an everyday workhorse.

As a possible inexpensive solution to your "problem," may I suggest putting a (Genoa?) track on your on your pickup pole arrangement that will allow you to slide the motor to where you need it.

Now that I have made a suggestion that MAY help you, I hope you don't mind if I ask my own question that might give you another idea as how to remedy your situation. While using a roller on the stern, it is easy for me to store the RIB over the aft cabin and lazarette. I can even lift up the dink with the outboard on it, but I don't like that much weight so high on the boat. But then I can move the engine off using my mizzen boom.

All that being said, I also have a small light weight aluminum RIB that needs work ( previously I sailed as a family of four, now it is just a much older me and my wife), however, it is good for local transit. My question is, do I just go with the Caribe, and sell the aluminum RIB, fix the smaller and keep both (I don't like having the aluminum RIB on the foredeck, but there is no other place), or go with an entirely different solution? In reality, I would also like a dink that rows well. I am even considering an inflatable kayak instead of the aluminum RIB.

Again, my apologies for asking my own question on top of yours, but I believe suggestions to both our concerns will provide more diversified and useful answers.

[Bulawayo]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I think if you have the space that it makes a lot of sense to have 2 outboards, a small one to use most of the time and a large one for those times needing the power.

We agree - we carry several motors as the kids have their own dinghy as well. We use two strokes for ease of maintenance and spares availability. We use exclusively Yamaha's; a 25hp & 15hp Enduro's and also have 2x 3.5 Maltas. The Malta's are our get home emergency motors or when travelling short distances. We have used our 'big' motors a lot and have pulled other boats off coral, towed them, and used our tenders as tugs too many times, besides needing the bigger engines when loaded and travelling distances. However, we also have the means to lift all the engines independently as we would not manage in any sort of chop otherwise.
Keep the 15hp and find/devise a means to lift it - can you use a spinnaker poleand halyard and then swing it back aboard? Or your boom? etc....

[2harbors]

We had the same problem with our hoist mounted on the pole and a new larger outboard. I fought it for a year and tried all of my ingenious ideas on reengineering the hoist. We bought a new hoist from Garhauer and solved the issue in a snap. It now mounts on the deck and is a piece of cake to raise, lower and position to hang on the rail. We enjoy our larger outboard because we are now able to explore further afield and carry more weight.

[model 10]

Hardly a day goes by that I don't regret buying the 8hp instead of a 15. At the time it was about getting an engine that we could lift and a 15 is too big and heavy unless you are big and strong. With just 1 person on board, an 8 is OK but anytime you have even a little load it's a dog. A 15 seems to handle just about everything. The 9.9 is the same size as a 15, so why would you buy one? Little tiny engines like a 3 or 4 hp on a full size rib are even less than a dog. Maybe when somebody steals your 15hp you get a 2.5.
As far as lifting it, we have a hoist and only once has the lifting sling broke on the 8 and I was able to grab it before it hit the water. If it had been a 15, I would have dropped it.

[Cheechako]

Not sure what your decision process was. But if you load your dingy and want to plane you will need 15hp. I know it seems fast when you are not loaded up. That's life. I didnt realize that a 10 hp was lighter than a 15 in the new engines, they used to most often be the same weight. Either way you are not lifting it on the boat by hand whether it is 10 or 15 hp. Just get used to it. Change your motor lift if you have to. Any motor lift is a PITA but necessary. The dingy is bouncing, the motor scrapes the hull etc. That's life!

[SkiprJohn]

Just my opinion but I think lighter is better. My back won't take the big engines any more. Our club Mercury 6 4-stroke is about as heavy as I'd want to have it at 50 some lbs. We don't need to plane.

[FatBear]

I gotta ask, and it's not a criticism or opinion but a genuine question: Why would anyone with a really small outboard - like the 3.5 to 5HP ones some have mentioned - need a RIB? It's not going to plane but it will be a lot heavier than a soft bottom. Plus you can stow the soft bottom if you are one of those circumnavigators that someone mentioned. Is it just a style thing or is there some real reason to prefer the RIB?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by FatBear

I gotta ask, and it's not a criticism or opinion but a genuine question: Why would anyone with a really small outboard - like the 3.5 to 5HP ones some have mentioned - need a RIB? It's not going to plane but it will be a lot heavier than a soft bottom. Plus you can stow the soft bottom if you are one of those circumnavigators that someone mentioned. Is it just a style thing or is there some real reason to prefer the RIB?

(Oops, for some reason this accidentally posted as a reply to a particular message, not to the thread. Sorry for any confusion it might cause.)

It's just a sturdier boat usually and more rigid. Less damage potential dragging it up on the beach etc. The little engine will make it go to hull speed as well as the lighter boat.
Having said that, it's a good point, If you don't want to plane, then just get a traditional plywood floor type. Lighter to put on deck.
To me, the main decision point in a dingy is "plane or not to plane".
It's a big decision like "refrigerator or not refrigerator"
Having a fridge is a HUGE decision. In the end it costs you thousands and a bunch of stuff on your boat in addition tot he fridge.

[FatBear]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

It's just a sturdier boat usually and more rigid. Less damage potential dragging it up on the beach etc.

I suppose that depends on which soft bottom inflatable you get. My old Hypalon Achilles was at least as indestructible as a little thin piece of fiberglass. (Those rigid inflatables are engineered to be stiff without being thick and heavy.) I suspect that some of those white big-box store inflatables are probably not so durable, though they look better and are lighter.

I bought mine used in 1990, either used it extensively myself or loaned to a friend who also used it very heavily until about 2008 when I gave it to my nephew who uses it for diving, fishing, and hunting. I've used it for pushing large logs out of the river (I live on a floating home right now) and pushing/pulling other boats. It is a little faded, but that's it. A blunt nail won't puncture it. Something razor sharp would, but not even glass stays razor sharp for long on a beach.

Rigidity is helpful if you are hanging the boat from davits - otherwise you need to keep it pumped up tight. And you can plane with less HP in a RIB if planing is what you want. I had a 30 HP 2 stroke on mine for some of the time I owned it and with just me in the boat and one of those lifting fins on the outboard I think there was probably just the inflatable keel and a little triangle of boat bottom in the water at full throttle. :-) But that's craziness that a 20 year old might indulge in, not practical. It would still move along smartly throttled way back, so I'm sure 15 HP would have produced satisfactory performance.

I think if you are not using davits you will feel a lot happier lifting a lighter, softer inflatable over your railing and onto your boat. Dinghies are awkward and that hard bottom can really bang things up.

And I could get well over 1000 pounds payload in a package that folded up quite small when I wasn't using it.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by FatBear

I suppose that depends on which soft bottom inflatable you get. My old Hypalon Achilles was at least as indestructible as a little thin piece of fiberglass. (Those rigid inflatables are engineered to be stiff without being thick and heavy.) I suspect that some of those white big-box store inflatables are probably not so durable, though they look better and are lighter.

I bought mine used in 1990, either used it extensively myself or loaned to a friend who also used it very heavily until about 2008 when I gave it to my nephew who uses it for diving, fishing, and hunting. I've used it for pushing large logs out of the river (I live on a floating home right now) and pushing/pulling other boats. It is a little faded, but that's it. A blunt nail won't puncture it. Something razor sharp would, but not even glass stays razor sharp for long on a beach.

Rigidity is helpful if you are hanging the boat from davits - otherwise you need to keep it pumped up tight. And you can plane with less HP in a RIB if planing is what you want. I had a 30 HP 2 stroke on mine for some of the time I owned it and with just me in the boat and one of those lifting fins on the outboard I think there was probably just the inflatable keel and a little triangle of boat bottom in the water at full throttle. :-) But that's craziness that a 20 year old might indulge in, not practical. It would still move along smartly throttled way back, so I'm sure 15 HP would have produced satisfactory performance.

I think if you are not using davits you will feel a lot happier lifting a lighter, softer inflatable over your railing and onto your boat. Dinghies are awkward and that hard bottom can really bang things up.

And I could get well over 1000 pounds payload in a package that folded up quite small when I wasn't using it.

Those old achilles may be the best ever made. Mine was Blue . Great tough boats. No match for a RIB bottom though. You really learn that up here in the PNW where all the rock beaches are covered with barnacles or oysters! Sharp as knives.

[foothillsailor]

Yep --looks like you have fallen for your vendor's recommendation to buy the BIGGEST dinghy and motor that you can afford (sorry but it seems to be the American way).


I expect that you will end up like many of my cruising friends --downsizing their dink (thank you but you don't need a RIB) and downsizing their motor because they got tired of needing a half hour or more to lug their dink off of their boat and then another 15 minutes to attach their motor to their hoist and then lower it over the side onto the dink (along with their gas tank)---and then another hour to raise it all aboard again.


AND if you go for BIGGER IS BETTER you will need all sorts of extra stuff--dinghy wheels; engine hoist; tackle and lifting harness to lift the boat on-board; tie down for the gas tank; cables and locks to secure the dinghy and motor against theft while you leave it overnight in the water (because it is such a pain to load it all on board each night; more insurance etc

[sailjumanji]

I have an 10.5 ft Avon Lite RIB (the one with the folding transom that the entire boat fits in a zippered cover). We power it with an 8 hp Yamaha 2-stroke. I can get it up on plane with two, people (est a bit above 400 lbs for myself and a friend) onboard, but it takes some leaning forward to get the weight out of the stern, and a bit of running room. We clocked at 23 mph WOT, but you can drop back from that quite a bit to keep on plane and reduce gas consumption. With just my wife and I onboard - around 330 lbs total - it will get on plane pretty easy. It hangs from davits on my catamaran. But when the motor does have to come on and off, I am happy with the 8 hp two-stroke. It's a pretty wet boat though in the chop, as the Lite has smaller tubes than your Caribe.

Originally Posted by Guy

Hardly a day goes by that I don't regret buying the 8hp instead of a 15. At the time it was about getting an engine that we could lift and a 15 is too big and heavy unless you are big and strong. With just 1 person on board, an 8 is OK but anytime you have even a little load it's a dog.

[foothillsailor]

-Sorry Phat Phingers ---hit 'send' by accident.....to continue....




My unequivocal advice is to use the KISS principle--my suggestion is get a 10ft inflatable dinghy with slat floor (aluminum or wood) and either a 2 1/2 HP Honda or a 3 HP Tohatsu with self contained gas tank---4 stroke or 2 stroke is your choice--2 stroke is lighter and probably more powerful per pound of weight but requires mixed gas.


You won't be sorry for going light and small when you are trying to launch your dinghy or mount the motor in a bouncing, rolling seaway (or you can be like one fellow I saw who swore that he would never let his 'heavy' motor slip overboard out his hands while loading it onto the dinghy and as a 'precaution' had run his pant's belt through the motor handle---a great candidate for the Darwin Award if I ever so one)


Also you will be thankful when you find it is so much easier to lift it up and carry the dinghy and motor the 15-20 feet of beach in order to reach the water after/before a falling/rising tide


Or you can persist in the wrong choice and spend boat bucks on engine hoist, davits, dinghy wheels, etc trying to make the wrong choice work.

[MVNoPlans]

I agree with foothill. The wife, my 3 year old, a small dog and yours truly happily get back and forth in our semi disposable Zoom 8ft with slat floor powered with a 2hp Honda. I don't have davits and I can easily lift the Honda up and over the transom with one hand. Zero regrets for going minimalist.