Today’s mailbag included this , shall we say, rant on the subject of senseless horsepower on boats. It’s well worth the read.
For me, the whole idea of a 500-horsepower outboard engine on a boat (much less four or five of them is simply insane. Then again, the largest boat engine I’ve owned was a 25HP outboard for a Boston Whaler. Both of the sharpies had 9.9HP outboards, the various electric motors on So It Goes hovered somewhere around 5HP and the engine on So It Goes now is a 6HP four stroke and they all worked just fine. The current engine on our Islander is a Yanmar 3HM which is 27HP and a monster (in more ways than one) compared to my previous engine experience.
For our dinghy we have a 1HP Cruise N Carry which, I expect, will drive our dinghy at hull speed but I don’t know for certain as I’ve never fired it up in anger preferring to row because I’m never in that much of a hurry to get anywhere and, let’s face it, rowing is a lot more enjoyable than listening to a two-stroke’s noise.
Also, and I’ll be honest, the idea that someone would spend more than $70K for an engine seems unreal and the idea that someone with phallic insecurities would need four or five of them is simply just astounding. Of course, we do live in an insane time so it makes some sense in a sorta/kinda way.
I do admit I’m more than curious what sort of gas bill running one or more of the beasts would incur…
That is what happens when you get government subsidized cheap gas. If people had to pay Nordic prices for fuels, the silly pick-ups and mega outboards would disappear overnight. Making money is more important than environmental issues. Meh…….
Less than 10hp has lots of legal positives. At least here, it means one does not have to register the craft or insure it… So our 23ft cabin cruiser had a 9.9 on it and moved at sailboat speed. The most expensive thing for that boat was the trailer… Our sailboat is registered and insured, not being trailerable, but I can not see having to register the dinghy just so as it can get me to shore a bit faster… it is using a 2/3hp trolling motor. I don’t know if that is the best solution but it seems even a little 3hp IC motor weighs as much as my old 6-8hp 2st and needs a crane to remove it from the dinghy. Electric OB motors are crazy expensive for what they are…. I guess the knockoffs haven’t brought reality to the market yet so my 2/3hp (500watt) motor which makes the battery affordable, will have to do. The idea is that the whole propulsion system can be handed to me by my Yf…. even the battery is less than 30pounds. Lifepo4 batteries being cheaper than lead acid these days.