Outboard motor for cat

have a question, will be this 2,5 HP four stroke motor enough for fx one and 2 adults+ 4 yo child onboard ?

yamaha motor

I want to put an electric outboard on my Blade F16 when it is done. Why would you want a petrol engine? Silent, efficient, clean and low maintenance electric outboards seems like a much better option unless you are going long distances.

Depending on what you want, I think a 2.5HP should be enough to get respectable speed out of your boat under motor. The 5HP I had on my lapstrake 16 foot launch when growing up was a good choice and a FX1 is far easier driven and much lighter.

i was looking for electric , but you need a big batery ,and they are kind of weak, or am wrong?

Why on earth would you put an outboard on a high performance cat?

Why on earth would you want a motor on a 16ft beach cat? I can understand putting a motor on a 27-30ft cat, but not on a F16.

How about a couple of decent paddles?

Maybe a sculling oar? Works back and forth from the transom.

Not sure why you need any motor on a sailing cat...with just over a knot or two of breeze the motor will be dead weight!

But, that size motor is more than enough for pottering around a harbor. We've got a special project craft made out of a SuperCat 19 platform with over 600 lbs of weight on it that we power using a 2 Hp fourstroke Honda. Runs around the harbor very nicely. And we don't have boards/rudders...motor mounted off of one transom...yet the craft still steers quite well just by turning the outboard.

sorry if i ofendet any one.i dont like the idea of motor on sailing boat (this size)
but have a son is 3 1/2 years old and must think safty over everythink else. on the see i must first take my wife and son to a mile distant shore (sand and wather 20 -150 cm of deph) and then i can go sailing all day <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

http://www.simplicityboats.com/ScullYulohaboat.htm

Some people have to traverse a long, narrow channel to get to the open water, and a small motor can be a big help.

We used to live on a canal, and with a Laser I could tack up or down the channel, but it would have been difficult with a cat. Paddling or sculling would be preferable, but probably not doable for me with a stiff headwind.

My PT had paddle friendly dagger boards. Steering with my foot and paddling at a sustainable rate I would travel about as fast as a kayak.

This is an image of a man out on an old boat of mine.
He is with his young son.
He was traveling substantial distance and the outboard was effective and little problem.

This image is of an old boat of mine I ran into out in the isalands.
The guy had a 3/4 year old son with him and was covering long distance.
This boat was designed 30 years ago by some German dude and home built.
He and his partner did big miles in the med for weeks at a time. It has big hatches.
This young man said the motor was a great addition and he had no trouble with it.

Also, here is another image of the boat showing the alli outboard bracket. A simple weld and hey presto.

BTW. I would not want the hassle of batteries out in the wet.

I can understand Mary needing a motor to get out of a narrow channel, but Igor, a small electric motor isnt going to do squat if the weather comes up and you've got a 3 year old on board. I've got a 6 year old and a wife that prefers the beach, and we dont go out as a family unless its perfect, flat water, under 10 knots, tide going the right way. If you get the 3 year old and wife in some weather, they wont want to sail with you no matter how big a motor you put on the cat.

Bill

Still can't quite equate having a motor with making the cat safer.

If it is rough enough to need to drop the sails fully and motor...then it is too rough to even be on the boat in the first place. A motor will not help in those conditions.

If having no wind is the concern, then take a paddle or two. Cat's more quite well while paddled. Also take a marine radio for emergency calls.

Ok, I fess up. On my old H21se I had an outboard on it for going to the islands (Catalina and such). When you are coming back accross through shipping lanes, it really helps when you have no wind. I had to leave Catalina once at 5 am to get to Marina Del Ray with no wind we made 6-7 knots the whole way on the motor alone. It was a 2hp Honda.

Lee

The 2 HP Honda's are a great little motor. Very simple design and easy to rebuild if a friend gets flipped going over the reef and lets it sit for two months before asking why it's seized up.

He gave it to me and $150 later I've got a great motor to use with the junior sailors.

i never dare to go out with my son if the weather is not PERFECT !
i need a motor because the wind is dead in the evening and i dont want to padle after all day sailing , call me lazzy, but whean am on vacation with fammily this little trip is priority (if i want peace) and then i can do what ever i want.

That is exactly the thing Igorn. I want an outboard on the boat to be able to use it as a regular motorboat. In my case I want to take the family over to some small islands just outside the club on quiet summer days. Paddling with the wife onboard is simply not an option and neither is relying on wind. The days we are going to do this will be days with no or very little winds. Less than 1m/s.
With a small outboard the platform can be used for a lot more than "only" sailing.

I would also call your attention to this attachment. Check in front of the port main beam.
That is a hatch cover...hinged..part of the boat. About the size of an average chilly bin.

This boat went like stink on a reach and was good enough on all points of sail yet it had heaps of buoyancy and easy storage etc etc.

The fact is we don't give enough though to multi-use in cats.

Igor,
let us know how the electric motor works if you get one. I understand what you're trying to do.

We go out to a barrier beach/island in the summer and the powerboats can come and go as they please without a care for the wind, or tide. I'm always watching the wind, timing the tide, keeping an eye out for fog, sometimes I start thinking, "maybe a powerboat would be easier." But that thought is like gas, it passes and you feel better. I love not having to gas up my boat, and being free from the noise and actually having to think about getting from point a to point b instead of just pointing it and pushing a throttle.

Bill

thank you all , last q: did you use any kind of safty line(rope) for kids ?

igorn,
The only thing I worry about with an outboard on the back of a catamaran is that if you have small children on board, you have to make sure that when the outboard is running, you do not let the children sit on the bows or hang over the front beam, because if, God forbid, somebody fell in the water between the hulls, they might get ground up by the propeller.

My golden retriever is a little clutzy, and I had him out on my Wave one day, and he fell off over the front beam between the hulls, and, as I passed over him, I grabbed his neck and pulled him back up onto the boat. It might have been a bad ending if I had been running an outboard motor and not been able to shut it off quickly enough. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

This applies to adults, too, for that matter.

Interesting question. If you are sailing, I would say NO, because if the boat capsizes, you do not want the child to be trapped under the boat by his tether line -- better for him to be thrown clear. (He is wearing a good life jacket, of course.)

If sails are down and there is no chance of capsize, and you are using an outboard motor, I would say it depends on how well the child obeys you as to where to sit on the boat. For a very young and active child, I would say you could use a tether from the center of the tramp that only allows him to roam to the edges and not enough to actually fall overboard -- same as what I would do with my dog in that situation.

If you put a long tether line, and the child falls overboard, even off the outside of the hull, there is a good chance that the line itself will get caught in the prop.

You don't use a battery with a little, hand-pull outboard motor, do you?

Good point. I like sailing fast and flying hulls, but I like to camp cruise and having a boat with the hatches and bulkheads of a kayak, integrated tent options, higher freeboard and so forth would be cool. the H 21SC comes close and I see the prices have finally started to come down. In the meantime I'm going to be using my H 18 but would love suggestions on how to imporve the boat for those uses.

I was thinking of adding a reef point possibly and figuring out better ways to use the hulls for storage than the 5" access hatch.

Ideas?

Dan

I GOT IT!!! THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED!!!!

Safe for the kids... helps if you run out of air!

You could even use the little bike attachment for letting the little rug rats help.

It is interesting how versatile kayaks have become such versatile craft for daytripping, surfing, camping, photography, etc. Most cats are really single focused though. Racing cats should be single focused as that helps make them fast, but recreational designs should have some hatches, bulkheads to prevent flooding hulls, reefing options, and tent options that would make the hordes of kayakers green with envy. And all in a superior watercraft in most ways....

Dan

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> i know is odd to put motor on it , but is "THE only" boat i have and on vacations must be in use for all. i also found a tend that is selfmaking-you throw it and it pop up by it self, very useful for a couple of days trip( can sleep on cat) and a net at the front of the mast to make it biger

i call it fx adventure ( not very original)
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

mary ,thanks

I had a the 2hp 4 stroke Honda on the SC20, and it would push the boat 6 kts in flat water. I fabricated a mounting bracket that allowed the lower unit to be almost parallel to the tramp when raised. This worked well when sailing in up to about 12 kts of wind, but above that we started bashing thru the waves and it started to exert big forces on the motorandm mount. It was also difficult to motor in chop, because the pitching either pulls the prop out of the water or threatens to swamp the power head. On big air days I'd remove the motor and mount entirely and rely on the paddle if it shut off, which was substantially less likely than on the light air days.
I also had a lightweight, older two stroke Evinrude 2 hp on a Hobie 18 Magnum. It also did fine on flat water, but was a hindrance when waves developed. And 30 to 35 lbs hung off the rear beam of any cat encourages stern drag, which always needs to be compensated by moving crew weight forward. If you've got 2 adults and kids and a motor on a beach cat, you're pushing it pretty deep into the water. Avoid strong winds in these circumstances. Good luck!

Dave

thanks for sharing. do you have long or short leg on motor?
and the motor where did you mont it , on center or near hull?

and 6 kts is very goood speed i wast thinking that 2hp motor is soo fast. how much time or miles do can you go with one tank ~ 1liter?
i found out that for same price 850€ there is a 3,5 HP motor, perhaps aditional HP would be useful or just consume more gas?

thanks for ans.

igor

another Q <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> :i was thinking to order smaler main sail for winds 20+ to depower the cat and make it more controlabile
how small shuld it be? original is ~16 m2. any idea what i can use for batens?

ps: dont be <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> at me, i like customize things <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
last year i made rigting pole and i must say that is working <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Perhaps a revised Hobie MirageDrive could be modified to put down a dagger board well?

http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/miragedrive.html

That's a great idea. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've only used short shafts, long woud do a better job of keeping the prop in the water, and the head out of it. But they're harder to find, heavier and a biat harder to get completely clear of the water when sailing. I probably used one tank of gas(1 quart, internal) for the whole season., as I never had far to go to get to wind, or back home. I'd counsel against bigger motors, weight is your enemy on a small cat.

dave

thanks dave, the diference in weight bitwin the 2,5 and 3,5 hp motors is 2kg.
it will be 2,5HP yamaha with long shaft.

thank you all

I've got a cheata motor mount and a older merc 2. it does add weight in the worst possible location and the mount does throw a lot of spray all over the motor when sailing in any sort of wind. Moreover, we had a hard time getting it started when we needed it--probably user error on our part--but that's something to consider. I'll keep working on it to get it working better though for all the reasons mentioned.

Dan

Jack Hoying adds a motor mount to his beachcat.
12 lb cruise n carry on a prindle
on the beachcats technical
suprised no one mentioned this
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Carl

Carl , i cant thank you enought

you're welcome...but,
the cruise n carry as far as I know is out of production
I'll search ebay for you..I purchased one off of ebay for around 300.00 US dollars.
also check out Nautic 2.5 outboard ...google it
Carl

I've used the cruise N carry on many occasions and love them when they run. Unfortunately, they are no good in salt water environments; too many fasteners and other parts that are not built from stainless steel.

I use a standard shaft Honda 2hp on a Cheetah bracket on a Mystere 6.0 in seas that reach as much as 12 feet at times. Works great as long as I'm not trying to use the motor while the wind is blowing. When the motor is in the raised position it rarely if ever, takes a direct hit from the seas. It does get plenty of spray!

The motor is tilted on it's own pivot bracket. At the same time, the Cheetah bracket is in its lifted position.



This pictures was taken while surfing down a 6-foot wave at Channel Islands National Park.

GARY