Spare engine

[Ade]

I have a 5.8m Tornado. Can anyone tell me the minimum size of spare engine to put on in case of emergency? Not sure that my family would appreciate paddling if the main one packs up.

[steedthrust]

http://www.rib.net/forum/search.php?...der=descending

If the link is tied to my user id try searching for auxillary.


Generally peopole are saying 1hp per mt but in reality it seems most peeps are running on 3/4hp per mt.

I am also thinking about a spare engine. Coming from the rag & stick brigade 4 knots is fine, gets you home eventually. There seems to be alot of debate about which is the best method of engine storage, fuel supply.



Steve B.

[Rupert Bear]

I have a Tohatsu 3.5hp on my 5.3m Humber. She is quite heavily laden with kit for diving but does 4-4.5knts on the littl'un. This is enough to get me home even if it does take a while.
Fitting larger engines seems pointless, if the main packs up you are just wanting to get home, if it packs up regularly then you need to fix it or replace it. The smallest most compact engine I could get was what I looked for, it is hopefully never going to be used!

[Nick Hearne]

But is this ok if you are into the wind & tide! You could find your self not making any headway or even still slipping back in the wrong direction!
Nick

[Mark Halliday]

Originally posted by Nick Hearne
But is this ok if you are into the wind & tide! You could find your self not making any headway or even still slipping back in the wrong direction!
Nick

Still better than going 4-4.5kts faster in the wrong direction. At least you would have some steerage way to avoid things. Over the last 20 odd years racing yachts I have found that the tide will always take you to nearest rock/bouy/jet-ski in miles of open sea. Sods Law.

[Rupert Bear]

Oban and area has very strong tides but the good thing about tides is that if you wait a while they end up going with you. Wind isn't so much a problem as the general prevailing wind here is SW which tends to take you home.
The tides are only strong enough to cause problems near to land and if the worst comes to worst you just need to wait for a while till it turns.
Buying a large enough engine to not worry about tides etc is far too expensive and heavy to lug around for something you should hopefully never use, it is only an emergency engine after all. If I was to buy a 15hp or similiar I wouldn't be able to carry it on the transom out the road and it would have cost at least 3x what I paid for the brand new 3.5hp I did buy.
As long as it can get you home, even if very slowly, then it does its job.

[simmons0]

Ill have an auxillary fitted when ive got a little more money kicking about and its likely to be 3.5 to 4hp.

ps. I have a 15hp suzuki fourstroke (long shaft) that may or may not be a reasonable auxillary for a certain rib with a matching suzuki fourstroke.

[Jono]

If you're talking to me, I've already got an auxilliary (8 horse high thrust Suzuki 4 stoke XL)...... Thanks for the thought though!
If you were talking to the OTHER Suzuki owners good luck...