Kicker Motor

[mattvct]

I have an old Nissan 3.3hp long shaft outboard that is in great condition just siting in my garage ever since it was removed from another boat (a 19' Cape Dory Typhoon). After my engine problems on my first shakedown cruise I started considering adding it as a backup motor off the starboard side. I have seen others using a backup on their Mac's but they are usually in the 9hp range and I'm not sure if it is worth the effort with such a small motor -- if it won't let me make my way back to shore or fight a slight current it's probably not worth it to me.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant to post this in the mods forum

[JasonDW]

I have the same question. I purchased a 4hp 4 stroke Merc for my dinghy, and was thinking of both storing it on the boat, but also mounting it so it would work as a back up kicker motor (likely fairly low as it is a normal/short shaft). But I also have some doubts as to the effectiveness on my 26M.

JasonDW.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Mines a 6hp and will move the X with full ballast at over 5 knots. It really takes very little power to move the boat at speeds below 6.5 knots. I'm sure your 3.3 will do a respectable job, I'd expect 4-5 knots. You'll want to mount it in a way that will allow it to tilt up otherwise it will drag the prop. My short shaft is just clear when vertical but does dig in every now and then depending on the type of waves. Unfortunately it won't tilt up far enough to lock however I can get a bit more clearance by going to the shallow running tilt stop. I wish I had a little more vertical travel in my trolling bracket.

[Kelly Hanson East]

Tahoe Jack, the Master of Mods, has a complete write up of a long shaft kicker install on an in the Mac Mods pages - there is also a thread on this in Performance and Tuning recently.

[Rick Westlake]

Mines a 6hp and will move the X with full ballast at over 5 knots. It really takes very little power to move the boat at speeds below 6.5 knots. I'm sure your 3.3 will do a respectable job, I'd expect 4-5 knots.

Duane, it's also your dinghy motor, isn't it?

I've been reading Self-Sufficient Sailor, and the Pardeys advocate doing without an engine altogether. Larry Pardey carried a long oar on Seraffyn for "auxiliary power" and could scull their 24-foot, full-keel cruiser at 1½-2 knots.
Now I'm not ready to go that far myself ...
But the P.O. passed along a backup oar for Bossa Nova.

[GART]

I keep the outboard for my tender on a lifting bracket on the stern same place as Duane. It is a 1977 Suzuki DT2 (2 HP short shaft) I tried it out on a run between two markers mile apart, I made 3.5 Knots in each direction, once against tide, and once against wind. Ballast tank full – Not bad for a 32 year old 2hp outboard! It was cavitating quite a bit as the cavitation plate was level with the waterline. But it is nice to know it could be used in an emergency.

[Kelly Hanson East]

've been reading Self-Sufficient Sailor, and the Pardeys advocate doing without an engine altogether.

This is a clash between the full time cruiser and the kind of cruising we do on this board. These are two different worlds and advice doesnt apply across these worlds.

[Rick Westlake]

've been reading Self-Sufficient Sailor, and the Pardeys advocate doing without an engine altogether.

This is a clash between the full time cruiser and the kind of cruising we do on this board. These are two different worlds and advice doesnt apply across these worlds.

Which is WHY I'm

not ready to go that far myself ...

The Pardeys are extreme examples of self-sufficiency and simplicity, and they have been "out there" for decades. What they've done aboard Serafynn and Taliesin is amazing and inspiring. We don't have to duplicate them completely - I'm not ready to take the Honda 50 off of Bossa Nova until it dies, and then only to replace it - but we can still learn from them, and find advice in their writings that will fit our "weekend warrior" cruising.

I would respectfully submit that a dinghy motor with dinghy makes good sense, even for weekend warriors like us; a "spare motor", in the sense of a spare tire, makes less sense to me.

I would also respectfully submit that anything we carry on our little boats ("little" in comparison to a world-cruiser, and frankly a Mac 26X or 26M has more cabin space than Tania Aebi's Varuna) should have a place and a purpose ... especially if we're doing more than day trips; i.e. spending our nights "on the hook".

There are a number of people on this board who are doing more with their Macs than many people do with their big seaworthy cruisers. Three examples are Duane Dunn, Chinook and James V - and I doubt that they feel that "advice" from the full-time cruiser wouldn't be useful to their endeavors.

[Kelly Hanson East]

Sorry if I offended Rick , my bad. The guys like Duane, Mad Mike, Chinook, etc. offer far more to this Board then they get back...

I get a little tweaked when I hear 'sailing dogma' fired off as gospel, so I over-reacted on my post. The worst case of this in recent memory was when some i*** instructor told someone on this board they were forbidden to dock under motor until they can dock under sail. I posted that they should find a new instructor, and the person took offense.

I was ungracefully trying to point out that this was a clear case of their advice NOT applying to weekend warrior sailing (like me) - which you had already pointed out previously

Hugs and kisses...

[ALX357]

A Mac without a motor ... the (big) motor is half the reason to buy the Mac. 'MHO. .... might be likened to a keelboat without any mast or rigging, just the 5 hp kicker. As for the purists who preach, just watch while their karma runs over their dogma.

[Morimaro]

I was recently out on a 26X for the day on a reservoir/lake which only allowed electric OB's and the boat I was on used a Minitonka OB that was similar to the minitonka I also used on my inflatable dinghy.

Although in reasonable conditions with no high winds it was OK to allow picking up moorings etc the owner said against higher winds or in a sea situation and a fast tide or current, then it would be a struggle or even useless, so he had become adept at sailing onto his moorings.

Before I got my dinghy and electric motor I also had an occasion when I ran out of fuel for the Yam50, so I had to sail the Mac onto my pontoon mooring. Luckily I had done this before when I began sailing dinghies but it was a lot more of a challenge with the Mac26X windage and a foul tide running but we made it, eventually.

I would have thought the 3.3 hp OB would be a useful addition to your boat as a kicker and if you can assist it with some sailing skills then all the better!

Cheers
Morris

[Chinook]

I have a 3.5 Nissan longshaft on a stern retractable mount. I use it mostly with the dinghy, but also run the Mac with it when trolling at slow speed. I can cite two useful examples of its value, or lack thereof, as an emergency backup power source. The first situation was a real emergency. We went out for a weekend sail on Banks Lake in Eastern Washington. I had trouble with the 50, but we were on a lake, right? We went sailing anyway, figuring we'd use the kicker to get back to the ramp dock. We sailed to an anchoring spot in the lee of Steamboat Rock, since thunderstorms were forecast. The winds kicked up, but clocked to the east, and we were thus hit with sustained winds of 40 mph, with higher gusts, and a lee shore nearby. The anchor was well set, but after a few hours of this wind, we started dragging anyway. I started the kicker and tried to motor out of trouble. The poor little thing just cavitated and then stalled out. It couldn't overcome the force of that wind. We ended up blown ashore, right between 2 nasty rock piles, on the only sand beach in the area. Turns out the anchor had ripped up a huge chunk of weedy bottom, which was why we drifted. Among the several lessons learned: 3.5 hp kickers have a definite limit in terms of wind and/or current they can overcome.

The second instance involved a situation where the kicker definitely could have solved a problem. If I had brought it along, that is. We were on Lake Washington and headed for the BWY rendezvous. Since we were going to be at a dock the whole time, I left the dinghy home. I also made the poor decision to leave the kicker home as well. We got as far as Lake Union and stopped for lunch. I tried starting the 50 and it wouldn't start (different and unrelated problem from the story above). I had a sailing breeze on Lake Union, but didn't dare try sailing through the Montlake Cut, which is a narrow channel where the breeze would become variable to non existent, and currents would take me where they would. It was a perfect situation for using the kicker to get me back to the ramp and boat trailer. If I'd brought the kicker, that is. A call to the tow boat resulted instead. Lesson learned: Obviously, always bring the kicker, even if the dinghy stays at home.