If you want it to plane with a couple of people in it you'll need a 9.8. Don't know about where you live but up here it is virtually impossible to buy a 2 stroke motor anymore, I believe they have legislated them out of existence, though I could be wrong on that. But all you ever see in small outboards now is 4 strokes.

We bought a Tohatsu 3.5 for our little Zodiac 260. For the first two years it was great.

However, this year we have had:

1./Carb Jets clogged up with gungo - when quizzed on this the dealer said that plugged carb jets is an epidemic right now in Canada due to the all the ethanol they are putting in the gas. I fixed it myself just by disassembling the carb and cleaning it out well but it still isn't running the same so clearly there's been some damage to the jets. I started buying premium because supposedly it doesn't contain ethanol, but I recently found out it has been mandated in Ontario that all gas has to contain at least 5% ethanol.

2./Latch that holds the hood on fell off. Just fell right off into the drink.

3./The built in gas tank SPLIT!. On the bottom side, right where it is molded in a sharp compound curve. Unbelievable. There is no pressure on this component so how it could crack like that is beyond me. No love from Tohatsu on a free replacement either, 50 bucks US for a new one and I have to eat that. Not user friendly at all, no way that thing should have ever split.

I am certainly questioning the quality of Tohatsu. But the dealer told me, and this is true, that all the small outboards that Mercury and Nissan sell are Tohatsus. You can order parts for any one of them and the only difference is the colour. Dealer told me you can't blame the engine for Number 1, which is true. But what about the other two? Pretty bad show for a 3 year old motor that has had at most 3 gallons of gas run through it.

In the Caribbean, all the locals use Yamahas and pound the crap out of them. So I think that says something for them. But I've never had one so don't know. Might find out shortly though since we're buying a RIB and bigger outboard and I am definitely going to look into a Yamaha.

Pound for pound, two-strokes are considerably more powerful then 4-strokes but as was said earlier, availablity can be a bit of a problem.

For me, it’s a question of weight. There inevitably comes a time, more so then I ever expected, where I have to take the engine home, or store it on the rail, or remove/remount it on the dinghy. With my delicate condition, it’s quite a challenge.

I have a Mercury (Tohatsu) 4/S 6 hp and an Achilles HB280DX, all on davits, for about 200 lb. total. First, I got a Nova Lift, and later, the davits because I got tired of busting my a@$ trying to manhandle the engine on & off of the rail, and the dinghy, on/off the foredeck.

At 55#, the 6hp isn’t all that heavy except when ever I was lugging it around (which is all too often, it seems). It gets twice as heavy with the added challenges of NOT dropping it or yourself overboard, or covering yourself with grease, or crushing a precious body part, or gouging the gel coat, etc etc.

With the 6hp and solo, I don’t quite make it up to plane - not that I need too. I’m only guessing, but I probably could get up on plane with the next size (8-10hp) engine at ~85#. A 10hp engine and the dinghy would be about 250 lbs total and that’s probably the most I’d want hanging on the davits even if the “big boat” were just sitting in the slip. A 15 hp at 120# - forget it.

Cost considerations aside, get the heaviest (highest HP) engine you feel comfortable carrying to/from the car and mounting on/off the rail or an unstable dinghy. For me, the 6hp is pushing it.

By the way, the hard bottom dinghy is a much more stable (and therefore safer) platform, then say, my old inflatable floor dinghy. It was well worth the money.

I’m no expert - just my personal opinion based on my experiences and I hope it helps.

Well, I do not have a dinghy or outboard as most of my sailing does not require one. It is an item on my want list for future cruising.
I also appriciate the issue of handling heavy outboards and wondered if any one else may have come up with a hairbrained idea like this.

Why not two light wieght outboards, this would give some redundancy if one crapped out and as a for istanace two 27 pound 2HP Honda motors would be easier to lug around than one 50 pound 4HP Honda motor. Not sure how you would need to rigg the thottles and tillers (not all of my hairbrained ideas are fully formed).

Steve,
I can see it now.....you in a dinghy, with one tiny outboard in forward, one tiny outboard in reverse.....just doin' donuts in the harbor!!! LOL!!!

My story:

When I first started dreaming about cruising and frequenting lots of sailing/cruising forums, much of the advice from the old-timers was to get the biggest RIB dinghy and engine you could afford to carry on your boat. The idea was that most cruisers wind up needing to carry a lot of stuff from ship to shore, and make fast trips sometimes over many miles.

I appreciated the advice but felt we could get away with a small 8 ft inflatable with a wooden floor, and a small 4HP outboard. We were getting soaked in any chop at all and making little way. It was misery much of the time when we needed to use the dinghy. We could not explore far from the mothership.

We moved up to a 10ft inflatable of the same brand and design, with a 10HP 2-cycle outboard. It planed with 3 people, but was still a wet boat which flexed horribly over any chop and felt unstable for that reason. Beaching the dink on coral beaches made me realize how good a hard bottom could be, so we understood the need for a RIB.

Finally, we got a real RIB with 17 inch tubes and a 9.9 HP 4-stroke Suzuki. We absolutely love it. It handles rough seas great and keeps us pretty dry. The 4-stroke is quiet and sips fuel. The downside beside the cost, of course, is the weight (140 lbs for the dink and 90 lbs for the engine).

To accommodate that, we have heavy duty davits on our boat and an engine hoist. I am confident that I can carry the dink and engine on the davits in most conditions, but will stow the engine off the dink for passages where weather could be a factor.

When not on the boat, the dink/motor are securely locked and covered at the dock, so the need to remove the motor from the dink should be infrequent.

I have totaled how much we have spent on used dinks and engines which didn't do the job for us and wish we had spent the money for our current setup 5 years ago.

Obviously, your situation may be different form ours, but there you go. Good luck.

Tom,

About five years back we anchored a freinds power boat in Clipper Cove on Treasure Island. He had a small West Marine inflatable with a 9.9HP out board that he let me have my way with in the anchorage, it had a friction lock on the throttle and I tethered the tillir in neutral, I found that sitting forward I could just lean side to side and stear. I then found I could stand up, use the painter to hold on to as my reins and lean from side to side to distort the shape of the dinghy to fly around the achorage on a full plane in my hydro bronco (no brains/great fun).

I think it all depends on how you're going to use it. We have a little inflatable and the 2 hp, 4 stroke Honda outboard. I like the motor because it's air cooled, meaning I don't have to worry about flushing out the salt water. The motor weighs about 25 lbs, so no hassle putting it on or taking it off the dinghy. We basically use it to ferry the dogs back and forth and to get ashore on a weekend cruise, so we don't need anything bigger. If we start doing something different, where we find we need a different set up, I don't think I'll have any problem selling this one. Meanwhile, it suits us fine, but that's us... different strokes for different folks.

[QUOTE=John Reimann;6119]I think it all depends on how you're going to use it. ... different strokes for different folks.[/QUOTE]

Exactly, John!

I have a 1980 Evinrude 2 HP outboard, used mainly for doggy runs. It's currently refusing to start and I'm replacing the ignition (already rebuilt the carb). It's amazingly well designed and simple as a stone axe. I may spend $100 bucks on all the new parts, but guess what; in my humble opinion, it would be impossible to purchase an outboard today that you'd have a prayer of being able to use 25 years later, let alone find parts for. I'm 58 and can handle it on/off the back of the inflatable pretty easily; not sure what it weighs, but 4 strokes are by design heavier (many more parts). 4-strokes are most definitely cleaner running and if I used this more than occasionally, that would be an important consideration. But I only used it twice last year, so I'm not all that concerned.

If this thing was ever beyond repair, I'd probably search ebay and get another, rather than take a chance on a new one that may not last much past the warranty period, as bstreet noted above.

Steve,
THAT mental image is even better than the last one! Ride 'em cowboy!!!