Best Dinghy Outboard for Children?

[disputin]

I have a 10 foot Rib and a torqedo 1100. No planing but it pushes it around a 4 knots for an hour and 3 knots for 2.5 hours. Your mileage may vary. It also pushed our last 26ft sailboat in an emergency about the same. It was pretty impressive

Sean

[ArmyDaveNY]

I had an older 4 HP Honda. It was very easy to start, VERY reliable, didn't require a gas-oil mix, and was light. Another big advantage was it had an integral fuel tank which freed up a lot of space. It had enough grunt that I could push or pull my 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) sailboat with ease if necessary.

I am sure that there are other makes that are similar in size and weight that are equally good. I also have an older Johnson 4 HP two stroke that I like best of all, however it needs an external fuel tank and a fuel-oil mix. The fuel-oil mix is not a big deal but it is one extra complication. On the other hand, it is like new and I only paid $300 for it.

If you get a Torqueedo electric outboard, be sure to get extra propellers. The customers who bought those often came back due to the need for replacement plastic parts that often broke.

Good luck with your search.

[rwidman]

An electric outboard motor is ideal for this application. There is no "pull starting", no choke setting or danger of flooding, no problems with carburetor gumming up from stale fuel and of course, no dealing with gasoline.

Also, there is no transmission or centrifugal clutch. Want to go forward, turn the handle. Want to stop, turn it back. Want to go in reverse, turn the handle the other way.

Of course, you do have to keep the battery charged.

I bought an ePropulsion outboard motor and I love it.

[wingssail]

Originally we had "his" and "hers" motors. Mine was a 25hp Merc and hers was a 4hp Merc. She could run hers but it wasn't much easier to start, etc. The controls were not intuitive either.

Then we went to a single motor, a 15hp Merc 2-stroke. It's been 21 years. Judy has been able to start it until recently and the single handle control is intuitive, so that's what we used.

However, she now can only start it if it is "one pull". If it requires multiple yanks on the cord or any BS'ing with the choke, etc, she's dead in the water. I'm afraid that any motor, new or used, large or small, would giver her the same issues.

I won't consider electric because of the range, speed, and recharge issues.

So our solution is that I chauffer her everywhere.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by wingssail

..........
I won't consider electric because of the range, speed, and recharge issues.

I think you should rethink that and check on what the latest motors and batteries can do.

Electric is not for everyone, but the electric motors do have a reasonable range and speed (how fast do you need to go in a dinghy anyway?).

I just plug my charger into the boat's 120 volt AC system and recharge my battery. It's not much of an issue.

[bwiencek]

Why has nobody mentioned electric start 9.x / 10hp outboards - all the big mfgr's make them and with a small / light lithium battery there isn't much of a penalty to using one. I think the electric starter only adds a few lbs to the outboard.



If she can't handle the "power" then some machinist can probably make a throttle stop bracket that would limit the throttle travel and thus overall HP. Or you might be able to change the ratio between the handle twist and throttle opening to make more twist = less throttle by drilling holes in the linkage arms.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by rwidman

I think you should rethink that and check on what the latest motors and batteries can do.

Electric is not for everyone, but the electric motors do have a reasonable range and speed (how fast do you need to go in a dinghy anyway?).

I just plug my charger into the boat's 120 volt AC system and recharge my battery. It's not much of an issue.

rwidman, Without mentioning price, just looking at the specs, an Epropulsion Navy 6 will push a 12' aluminum boat with one person at 11kts for 1:50hr according to the specs, with an 8960ah lithium battery (using 5000watts power output).

Honestly, that is impressive.

But I wonder if it would push my 12ft dingy at 11 knots with a two people and a typical load?

Do I need to go 11 knots? Maybe not but quite often, while cruising, we need to go long distances to town and we don't want to take all day. For example while anchored at Matanchen Bay in Mexico we wanted to go to town in San Blas to shop, a round trip of 9 miles (it is very difficult to take a sailboat in there due to shallow entrance). With our 15hp Merc (which is 11kw BTW) we can do it at 11 kts using 2.4 gallons of fuel, and we bring back two weeks of provisions. That is going to push the limit of the Navy6, and you'd better hope for calm water the whole way and I'll bet it takes a lot longer.

And that is not considering pleasure trips like dive trips, etc.

Then, how do we recharge the 4000-5000 watts we consumed in the dingy's electric battery? Five hours of solar, if we had that much solar? Or run the engine for 4-5hours (at 80 amps from the alternator)?

This might work if you are taking your dingy to your neighbor's boat for cocktails, or going a short distance to shore and going home after the weekend so you can plug into shore power, but for cruising boats, if you are full time cruising away from the dock, on a typical yacht (monohull sailboat), the range, speed and recharge issue just makes it impractical.

Think of this: if you live in a retirement community you can use the golf cart to go to the clubhouse, but you don't take it to Home Depot.

Then you need to look at the price of the motor and the battery.

[gulfcoastsailor]

I missed the dinghy size and weight. I have a 2 stroke Nissan 3.5. I think someone is making it still just not Nissan.

[conchaway]

The best dinghy outboard for children-- oars. They build muscle and teach them that texting and tweeting aren't sailing.

[hamburking]

My teenage daughter had a Siren 17. She is 5'2" and a tiny little thing. She had the same issues with outboards as you describe. After sailing one season with no motor (making her a great sailor!) I bought her a HONDA 2.3. It was a great little engine, and she had no trouble starting it. With air cooling, and no shifter, its such a simple engine that she felt confident that she could run it. Uses very little, almost no gas at all. The only downside is that its a bit noisy. But still highly recommend.

[Adelie]

If the OP needs to go short to moderate distances, 1-3nm each way, and is happy going 5kt, then a 45lb thrust trolling motor with a Kipawa prop to get a little more speed or efficiency would work. By mounting a 100W panel across the stern you could avoid having to pull the battery off to charge every night.
https://www.kipawapropellers.com/

A 2.3-3.5hp 4-stroke gas motor would also work but would be better able to extend range out as long as 5kt was still OK.

If you feel the need to run at higher speed for significant distance then a larger 4-stroke would be appropriate or one of the high end electric motors like Torqueedo

[C420sailor]

Me? I’d fabricate a throttle stop in that 9.9 and install an electric starter. As she gets more comfortable, you can back off on the stop.

[Williamp]

We bought an epropulsion last year, my wife can now go off and explore knowing that it will start. It’s given her freedom and is no longer reliant on me as taxi driver. The downside is that we now have to talk to each other in the dinghy as is so quiet….done the 2 stroke/4 stroke thing, no going back.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by JBP

If you can get by with an an electric fishing motor instead of a Torqeedo, used ones are dirt cheap. Range just depends on what size batteries you choose. They can easily go all day, very slow.

Originally Posted by Chotu

I was think of these. Would they move the dinghy at 5-6 knots or so? I have no experience other than remembering my grandfather had one when I was lake fishing with him at 6 hrs old.

What about one of those propane OBs?

A guy at our marina has one (Lehr?) seems equivalent to 5hp, and he loves it...

(That's the limit of my "knowledge" of prope outboards, however...)
LW77

[P3sailor]

Go to a 50hp motor and you won't have to worry about her anylonger, better yet just do some research and some good old-fashioned legwork to figure it out.