A reasonable excuse, something interesting about cheese, and in the "Not at all surprising" department...
While I enjoy rowing I'll be the first to admit that on occasion a small outboard is no bad thing. I use the word 'small' because when I do the need/want test I find that what I need to power a small displacement dinghy to hull speed is just around 1HP.
Now, if you think about, it one horse power is actually a whole lot of energy and hardly a thing that is a candidate for derision. Trust me it will move your boat just fine.
Of course, our consumerist overlords don't seem willing to produce a one horse power outboard engine and these days finding a 2HP engine has become quite the problematic exercise.
The old air cooled 2-stroke Cruise N Carry outboard with 1.5HP was actually a pretty good motor as it was simple, easy to fix, and only weighed twelve pounds. The downside was being air-cooled and two-stroke it was a noisy little sucker.
It seems obvious, to me at least, that the way to go with a small outboard these days is going electric. There are lots of little trolling motor that would push your little displacement dinghy just fine.
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| Saturn 65pond thrust/1 HP motor |
The problems with little trolling motors for a cruiser is that while the motors are relatively inexpensive and light they do require a largish battery to make them work. The idea of having to wrangle a 100AH battery in and out of the dinghy on a regular basis as well as having to charge the battery does not induce a warm and fuzzy feeling.
There is one little electric outboard that checks off most of my list and that's the EP Carry which is a great design but somewhat pricey at $1600. Especially when considering that an electric weed wacker can be bought for less than $200.
Did I really just say weed wacker?
Think about that for a moment... It's an electric motor on a stick that turns something. While, granted, a polypro string is not exactly a great way to push your dinghy through the water it does not seem all that difficult of a stretch to imagine that one could attach a propeller to such a beast and see what happens.
Listening to ADG7
So it goes...
