Best small petrol 4 stroke 3 or 4 h.p dingy outboard motors

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I certainly do not want to steer this thread away from the point of the topic of 4 stroke 3 or 4 h.p dingy outboard motors but...
people like a Porta boat because...


-they have most of the inflatable advantages

-plus lighter, plus plane with less hp,

-plus does not have the problems associated with leaks that inflatables inevitably get.

-They are cheaper to buy new and if you're not able to just throw money around, they can be had on the used market for 1/2 their new price and have seen very little use from land based people who used them as fishing platforms a few times a year.

I briefly looked at a Portaboat. For the 10-footer, weight was almost 100 lbs (the same as an Achilles 10-foot RIB), transom weight is limited to around 50 lbs so effectively, a very small motor (vs 10 hp for RIB), payload capacity was under 600 lbs (vs 1400), and frankly, the YouTube channel Zingaro had a Portaboat for a while that didn't seem to hold up very well. I'm guessing the flat bottom is fine for protected waters vs deep vee of a quality RIB. Finally, at $3100 for the Portaboat (vs $4600 dor RIB), it just didn't seem like a great value to me. The one huge benefit i can see to a Portaboat is its fairly easy put on the roof of a car. Not exactly the use case I was looking for.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I certainly do not want to steer this thread away from the point of the topic of 4 stroke 3 or 4 h.p dingy outboard motors but...
people like a Porta boat because...


-they have most of the inflatable advantages

-plus lighter, plus plane with less hp,

-plus does not have the problems associated with leaks that inflatables inevitably get.

-They are cheaper to buy new and if you're not able to just throw money around, they can be had on the used market for 1/2 their new price and have seen very little use from land based people who used them as fishing platforms a few times a year.

I kind of like the Portaboat. Would be my second choice if folding RIBs didn't exist.

[MicHughV]

It may be worth your while to shop for a used 2 stroke.

I swear by my 8 hp Yammie two stroke. It's a darling of an engine, easily picked up with one hand. Reliable as a swiss watch, and plenty of zip. Good on gas too.

[LouK]

Originally Posted by mlydon

Yamahas are the best of the best, but cost it. Tohatsu 3.5 4 stroke will do fine, and reasonable price. The trick is, run it out of fuel every night - turn off the stop cock or disconnect the fuel line and let the motor run until it quits. This keeps the carb clean - a modern 4 stroke sips so little fuel that the jets are tiny. Leaving fuel in the carb attracts water, then the fuel evaporates, leaving water behind, which gunks everything up.

Matt

This is so true- run it dry until the gas is all gone from the carb

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I briefly looked at a Portaboat. For the 10-footer, weight was almost 100 lbs (the same as an Achilles 10-foot RIB), transom weight is limited to around 50 lbs so effectively, a very small motor (vs 10 hp for RIB), payload capacity was under 600 lbs (vs 1400), and frankly, the YouTube channel Zingaro had a Portaboat for a while that didn't seem to hold up very well. I'm guessing the flat bottom is fine for protected waters vs deep vee of a quality RIB. Finally, at $3100 for the Portaboat (vs $4600 dor RIB), it just didn't seem like a great value to me. The one huge benefit i can see to a Portaboat is its fairly easy put on the roof of a car. Not exactly the use case I was looking for.

The Achilles RIB I looked at had these specs Length: 10' 4" Beam: 5' 5" Weight: 176 Lbs. Capacity: (5) Persons or 1300 Lbs.
Hardly the same as the Porta Bote. I did however see one advertised at 128lbs. The 10ft. Porta Bote is 78 lbs. To be fair, the 10' RIB has less than 8' of length inside the tubes. So you should actually compare it to the 11'6" model which weighs even more and a cost of $5K compared to a 10ft. at $3100. ...not $4600. As a few on this thread have stated, lifting more than a 6hp. engine can be a challenge which is an added attraction of a PB since they plane with a 3.5hp. and up.
As far as Zingara is concerned he is about the last cruiser I would give any merit to with some of his choices.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I kind of like the Portaboat. Would be my second choice if folding RIBs didn't exist.

My personal feeling Mr. DH is if you could borrow one for a day and scoot around a little and then row for awhile and see how well they pull, you might switch the choice priority.


My first PB was a 10ft. double-ender. I had never seen anything so ugly in my life. Getting use to it's initial wobbliness and how clumsy I was at first opening it up, I thought no way. I give them a lot of credit now. Their biggest asset for me is stowage and a 44lbs outboard. On a my second PB had 6hp on my 10' at 54lbs. I could stow it inside my 35ft. Hallberg Rassy at the time with not too much difficulty and used a Garhauer crane to put it on the transom of the PB. If I had a 40'+ vessel, I would look more into davits and a hard dinghy.

[MicHughV]

If you want to go diving/snorkeling...you'll need an inflatable, trying to get in and out of a PB from the water would be challenging.

An inflatable's tubes makes a handy sitting spot, another plus.

Here's the thing, unless you have a really powerful outboard, say 15 hp and up, trying to plane a dink with a small engine against a chop or waves is simply a non-starter and you will find that you will just chug along at non-planing speeds..meaning that most any small engine will do the trick.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

The Achilles RIB I looked at had these specs Length: 10' 4" Beam: 5' 5" Weight: 176 Lbs. Capacity: (5) Persons or 1300 Lbs.
Hardly the same as the Porta Bote. I did however see one advertised at 128lbs. The 10ft. Porta Bote is 78 lbs. To be fair, the 10' RIB has less than 8' of length inside the tubes. So you should actually compare it to the 11'6" model which weighs even more and a cost of $5K compared to a 10ft. at $3100. ...not $4600. As a few on this thread have stated, lifting more than a 6hp. engine can be a challenge which is an added attraction of a PB since they plane with a 3.5hp. and up.
As far as Zingara is concerned he is about the last cruiser I would give any merit to with some of his choices.

https://www.defender.com/product3.js...88&id=7483244#

91 lbs (and not even an aluminum). I ended up going with an AB 310 AL at 125 lbs. It has a double floor and bow locker, so I'm sure the standard version is close to 100 lbs.

For some inexplicable reason, Portaboat reports their weight minus the transom, which is about 20 lbs as i recall. Combined is over 90 lbs. The reason they will plane with a smaller motor is because they are flat bottomed, not always a desirable attribute (plane with a 3.3? Maybe with a person no bigger than a jockey) especially for exploring where there may be afternoon chop on the return.

I also have a 3.3hp Mercury that I bought new about 25 years ago. It's a decent little motor and lightweight. I used to have a cheap roll-up inflatable - the combination was fairly easy to launch and stow. For simple commute from anchor to dinghy dock it worked great. For exploring, hard to best a RIB with 15hp.

Total agreement on Zingaro guy (though his Portaboat sure didnt hold up). He was always a bit odd. After he busted up his boat in Hawaii, he got really weird.

[Pegu Club]

We have used a Honda 4 stroke air cooled 2.3 hp outboard for years, super reliable and ya can’t kill the freakin thing…, , weight is approximately 30 pounds, easy to one hand it. It pushes me 210 pounds, the misses 125 pounds and three full jerry cans and a bag of groceries with reasonable ease, oh and it sips gas, the only other advice is, never ever put ethanol fuel in an outboard you like,

Fair winds,

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

People like RIBs also because;

1. They don't mar the hull of the mother ship when you knock up against in a rolly anchorage.

Neither does my dinghy, because it has a soft, non-marring EPDM rub rail adhered to the gunwale.

2. Huge stability

Depends. My dinghy is more stable than a rib while being towed. It is also more stable in waves than a rib. It is somewhat less stable when someone steps on the gunwale than would be the case for a rib. This is mainly because of design choices that make it light, narrow, and easy to row and not an inherent benefit of ribs.

3. Huge capacity for a given size

In weight terms, perhaps. Interior volume is much smaller.

5. Safety in case of swamping.

My dinghy has sealed buoyancy chambers and is made of inherently buoyant materials. The hull is far more puncture resistant than the sponsons of a RIB. I believe it's safer.

6. Can climb into it from the water after swimming or diving.

I can do that with my dinghy, and just did so last week. I am neither young nor thin.


I believe the drop-stitch HP air floor inflatables offer a compelling set of tradeoffs. I am pleased to see that the same technology is starting to be applied in interesting ways to hybrid canoe/kayak sorts of inflatables to produce a high quality paddlecraft that can be stored easily. RIBs on the other hand seem to me to combine the disadvantages of a hard dink and a deflatable. I ascribe their popularity to easy availability and the absence of compelling commercial offerings in the hard dinghy space.


Among the candidates I have for future boatbuilding projects are a) Gatehouse's GV-10 "Fast Garvey," a lightweight composite boat intended for high speed planing use, and b) a center-tunnel planing design intended to provide greater stability and shallower draft than conventional designs.

[Rod Headlee]

It looks like everything has been coverd. I prefer the Yamaha. I presently own a Tohatsu.
The carb always gets plugged up in small engines. I keep a set of guitar strings for cleaning the various jets. It works better than compressed air. Many carbs you can drop the float bowl with the carb still mounted on the engine and clean the fuel jet.

[MicHughV]

If there is one "golden rule" for small outboards....even big one's.....don't use ethanol laced fuel..!!!

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

https://www.defender.com/product3.js...88&id=7483244#

91 lbs (and not even an aluminum). I ended up going with an AB 310 AL at 125 lbs. It has a double floor and bow locker, so I'm sure the standard version is close to 100 lbs.

For some inexplicable reason, Portaboat reports their weight minus the transom, which is about 20 lbs as i recall. Combined is over 90 lbs. The reason they will plane with a smaller motor is because they are flat bottomed, not always a desirable attribute (plane with a 3.3? Maybe with a person no bigger than a jockey) especially for exploring where there may be afternoon chop on the return.

I also have a 3.3hp Mercury that I bought new about 25 years ago. It's a decent little motor and lightweight. I used to have a cheap roll-up inflatable - the combination was fairly easy to launch and stow. For simple commute from anchor to dinghy dock it worked great. For exploring, hard to best a RIB with 15hp.

Total agreement on Zingaro guy (though his Portaboat sure didnt hold up). He was always a bit odd. After he busted up his boat in Hawaii, he got really weird.

You're correct about PB excluding the transom weight. But still lighter and tougher than an inflatable. One of our fellow members, Mike Reilly had this to say about his 10' PB...

"I've had a 10' PB as my dinghy for must be close to 15 years now. It's been a great tender for our two cruising boats.
We carry our on our side deck, tied tight to the cabin. We store the seats in a heavy vinyl bag on the fordeck, tied against the forward cabin.
We (dis)assemble on the foredeck and launch/haul from there. It's all done by hand, so no need for lifting bridles or to fiddle with halyards.
I have a 3.5hp 4-stroke outboard which will easily plane our bote with one person in it (even one fat person ). In calm conditions it will plane my spouse and I. But we mostly just putt along at a slower pace when using the engine. Often we just row since the bote rows so well."


The point I'm trying to make is for us "old guys with limited strength, a PB with a 55lbs(or less) outboard can be a happy combination.
I can't tell you how many times I heard on the VHF in Mexico..."Anyone know who repairs Inflatables?"

[mvweebles]

The reason I have a 3.3hp is, many years ago, I built a Nutshell Pram as a dinghy for my then-boat. Originally, I planned to row the pram, but the currents in San Francisco proved too much to reliably return to my boat from ventures ashore. The small outboard worked fine.

But cruising along the west coast means a lot of open roadstead anchorages that frequently have chop. My pram was a really wet ride and didn't evacuate water well so it was a bit scary in anything but flat water.

The only other serious choice for me was the OC Tender. Cost was very high, but mostly availability was uncertain so I went with am AB aluminum RIB. The OC is solid - if you can afford one, hard to argue against. Last dinghy you'll ever buy.

I guess my point is choice of a dinghy is really dependent on how it will be used. I also know that on the pacific coast of Mexico among long term cruises, small OBs are very popular as they can be lifted aboard and safely stored. They are small enough that its pretty easy to carry one as a spare.

To the OP, I've been happy with my old Merc 3.3 2-stroke, though it doesnt have a lot of hours on it. At the time, the choice was a smaller Honda that was air-cooled and didn't have a reverse gear. Honestly, I don't think twist-throttle would make much difference but maybe.

[Celestialsailor]

Where did you store the OC?


Another tender I had but was heavy to store(for me) was the Livingston 8' super dry and planed with a 6hp.