Trouble with my outboard height?

[Chuck Hawley]

Originally Posted by ausaviator

Engine specs are 51kg, max rpm 5850, fuel 13lph, 430cc, TRANSOM HEIGHT 17.1 - 22.1.

Aaaaahhhaaa... amazing what you find when you read the manual! It's definitely the shortest shaft available for that model, just a tad long. Just looking at my old Yamaha, I can't help but feel it was a bit shorter.

I'll go a bit higher and report back as soon as I'm done.

The specs appear to cover two different shaft length engines. If I had to guess, they are saying it comes in 17.1 and 22.1 inch shaft lengths. Two different engines. We'd say 15" and 20" in the U.S.

Putting it another way, I don't think there's an engine that would be compatible with transom heights that varied over a 5" range.

Chuck

[Chuck Hawley]

Oh, one more point. At West Marine, we tested dozens of inflatable prototypes with different sized engines. One of our boat builders used a tach which simply pressed against the engine cowl to measure engine RPM. Seemed to be accurate to about 100 RPM or so.

Some boat designs were very wet all the time. I think the problem may have been an inflatable keel that terminated in a big lump, and possibly a transom that stuck down almost vertically behind the keel. In any case, I think it was an inherent problem with the boat design: a bad copy if you will.

You may have one of those boats.

Chuck

[ausaviator]

Don't get me wrong, it goes well, it's very fast and handles a good sea, however it's probably at the higher and for length for a boat with a non rigid hull - folding / rolling was a requirement for me. Many tenders of this length have a rigid glass or alloy hull with centre console. You're never going to get amazing all-round performance with varying loads for this length without electric trim and a rigid full.

It cost AUD$900 new.

The engine is the short shaft model. This boat isn't wet at all which is good. It takes quite a sea state to get a decent splash.