I wrote a letter in the Winter Bulletin asking for advice on buying an outboard motor for a Leader. I have been overwhelmed by the kindness of members and their generosity in giving of their time to share their know how - and even in one case by the offer a no-longer-needed outboard bracket. It seemed that the least I could do to try to collate the replies I received.

All this activity came at a difficult time for me as my mother-in-law fell, and suddenly required our care. It has been rather nice, through all this upheaval, to be constantly reminded of sailing days ahead. Actually, I asked about two things: outboard motors and (the reason why I wanted one) the entrance to Poole Harbour. I will summarise the extremely helpful tips I received about Poole Harbour for the next Bulletin. Again, if anyone needs the information in the meantime, please let me know and I’ll copy it for you.

We used to sail in Poole Harbour, but our arrangements there folded and we now sail off Studland beach. We love this, but it would be nice to extend variety by sailing back into Poole Harbour and I (rightly, in the view of most of my correspondents) view the entrance with trepidation. After all that, what were my questions? I’ll go through them, but there is no one answer to the question: “what outboard motor should I buy?”

What size of motor do I need for a Leader with a load nearly equivalent to four adults?

Many readers will be familiar with the Leader. It’s 14 feet, and counts as a light boat by DCA standards (not when you’re pulling it up a slipway, though!) To those who don’t know the class we generally describe it as like a 14 foot Wayfarer - probably hopelessly inaccurate if you really know the Wayfarer, but it’s true that it’s more like a small cousin of the Wayfarer than it is like the 14 foot Wanderer. It’s very good at making the best of whatever wind there is, but also very forgiving.

Several people reckoned 2 hp was enough. One correspondent said his 2 hp would drive a Wayfarer at 6 knots in a flat calm but pointed out that some tides run faster than this, e.g. the ebb out of Christchurch.

Ted Jones’ advice was as follows: “I chose a 3.5 since it had a neutral gear and this was becoming important, otherwise I would have been quite happy simply to replace the old 2 hp one as it had enough oomph to shove my Sunspot 15 along. (Sunspots weigh about 900 lbs by the way.) 2 hp jobs tend to be clutch less and it’s a case of “pull and go” with them. ... However they’ll probably be fine for what you want so you can save on weight there too as these smaller engines with their less complicated mechanics weigh less.”

Len Wingfield (though keen that I should sail or row given the superb sailing qualities of the Leader - on which I am thoroughly in agreement with him) was able to give advice specific to Leaders, though he has personally only ever used his Leader with an outboard once. He thought that any outboard up to 4 hp would do, but suggested 2-3 hp short shaft as being more than adequate for a family of 2 adults and two children. (I return to the issue of length of shaft below.) Peter Ingram thought that for a heavily laden 14 foot dinghy I would want 4 hp.

Weight is a critical factor and several people made the good suggestion that I should get leaflets with specifications to compare weight. Ted Jones pointed out that it needs to be light whether you intend it to stay on the stern (think of the effect on boat) or whether you intend to put it there as and when needed - difficult enough in anything other than a flat calm, but lighter is better. The internet was suggested as a good source of this sort of information, and the Boat Show, where apparently one can sometimes get a good discount.

Which make?

Views varied, and obviously each person was only telling me their personal experience, and how their outboard compared with their own needs.

One interesting fact is that Tohatsu actually make most of the parts that go into Mercury and Mariner.

Honda: One correspondent said his 2 hp was reliable, following a recall, and always started first time. John Lipstone had heard of this Honda too, and said that he thought there had been early problems and that he didn’t know if it still existed, though it sounded a nice engine. David Parkinson and Eric Scholes seem to have found the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow that several people (including I think probably me shortly) were looking for - a small 2 hp 4 stroke with a clutch - from Honda. A clutch was something I hadn’t even thought about, but came to realise you’re making an important choice there. Clutches tend to come with bigger, more expensive models, which is why a small engine with a clutch is relatively rare and why these Hondas seem attractive. David said they cost about £400 new. I have yet to get Honda’s brochures etc., so can’t confirm that this is still available. David has the Honda 2 hp 4 stroke for his Drascombe Scaffie, and thought it was rather noisy for a 4 stroke, but that this might be because it was air cooled rather than water cooled. He thought Yamaha did a smaller 4 stoke too.

Mariner: Peter Ingram has had mostly Mariners over the years and has found them to be thoroughly reliable. He says that Yamaha and Mariner are the same with different badges. He had had bad experiences with a Suzuki, thought that maybe he was unlucky.

Suzuki: Aidan de la Mare told me that he has a Suzuki 2.2 hp 2 stroke water-cooled motor that cost him £235 new. “So far it has been excellent, with plenty of power for my fairly heavy non-planing 14 ft dinghy. Being a very small motor it is easy to start and light enough to handle in and out of the boat with comfort - I have carried it on my shoulder for half a mile. ... This Suzuki is the simplest and cheapest of their range and therefore has some limitations, but I have no problem with them. It is a “start and run” motor, no forward-neutral-reverse, but you can of course turn it right round and go backwards. It has the speed control on the motor, not the handgrip, which is a disadvantage in a tight place, but I use an oar there anyway.”

David Sumner has a 2.2 hp 2 stroke Suzuki to power a Mirror, and finds the power ample for that and thinks it would probably be OK for something larger. In good conditions it needs only to tick over to go along. It uses less than a litre of fuel and hour, so a gallon of petrol gives a long range. He says he has found it easy to start from hot but not particularly good from cold, though he says that this may be just his engine and it is due for its first service. “The throttle and choke settings for starting seem really hit and miss.”

Tohatsu: Ted Jones said: “When I needed to replace a stolen outboard, I decided to get one light enough for me easily to bring ashore and then home. I settled on a Tohatsu which turned out to be the lightest available of the 3.5 hp jobs. Very reliable it’s turned out too. Much pleased with it.” He then went on to comment (reported above) that he chose the 3.5 hp in order to get a clutch.

Seagull: these seemed to be reckoned to be smelly and noisy, but if you don’t mind that you are getting a simple and reliable workhorse that you may come to love (if it is possible to love an outboard motor - shall we say a workhorse that you may become very fond of?).

Yamaha: John Lipstone reckoned his 2 hp Yamaha was a super little engine for his 12 foot dinghy and would probably be adequate for a 14 foot as long as there wasn’t too much wind. You might want more if you envisaged using your engine to get out of trouble in windy conditions, or say up river against the wind. His Yamaha is reliable, easy to start and quiet in itself, but does make everything rattle. He thought that starting was mostly a question of technique.

Sarah Goddard and Mike Lewis are very happy with their 2 hp 2 stroke Yamaha for a 12 foot Torch, sailed from Itchenor (Chichester) and Beaulieu / Lymington. Their comment on starting: “we wish our lawnmower were as effortless”. Such trouble as they had had with starting had been due to failing to open the air intake fully - a tip which might be useful to others! It is light and lean enough to carry on a shoulder for portage. The tank capacity is only enough for about an hour, so a spare can lashed under a seat with a bungee is essential - or at some 2 stroke oil so that you can take advantage of kind offers of assistance. It doesn’t have a clutch and although it’s supposed to be able to “reverse” by turning the engine right round, it can’t actually turn the 180 degrees needed to achieve this. But they, like a lot of people, reckon on using oars for that kind of manoeuvring anyway.

Two stroke or four stroke?

I didn’t know enough even to ask about this, except indirectly and unintentionally - much to my very technical son’s disgust when he discovered this. For the benefit of any readers whose mechanical knowledge is as limited as mine was until recently and want to make a stab at understanding, at the end of this article is his attempt at a simple description of the difference between 2 stroke and 4 stroke. It at least has the merit of being comprehensible with no previous knowledge.

2 strokes are less environmentally friendly than 4 strokes - they run on a mix of oil and petrol and leave a film of oil on the water - it’s that oil mix that produces the smell too. I was told that there are no regulations in the pipeline about this though, so a new 2 stroke shouldn’t be on the verge of becoming obsolete. And the view was expressed to me that there weren’t likely to be regulations in the foreseeable future - think of all those 2 stroke lawnmowers. The truly international may want to know that apparently Lake Geneva has introduced regulations.

The consensus seems to be that 2 strokes are smellier, noisier and use more fuel than 4 strokes, but they are lighter for the same power. The mechanics are also considerably simpler, which affects any home maintenance you chose or are obliged to do. 4 strokes cost more to buy (and service) and tend to be larger, because the mechanical costs of a 4 stroke can only be absorbed on a larger engine.

Sarah Goddard and Mike Lewis told me that they did not really want a two stroke because of the residue of oil they leave on the water, but that they were advised that “if we wanted an engine we could throw onto the backseat of the car, tip upside down, would never leak and would require minimum maintenance, that 2 stroke was the appropriate choice”. My son is a big advocate of 2 stroke, on the grounds that there is no point in choosing unnecessarily complicated mechanics which require additional maintenance. There speaks a true mechanic!

I got a sense that, all else being equal, people seemed to expect 4 strokes to be easier to start than 2 strokes, though no one actually said so. My mechanically-minded son reckons that a more important difference may be whether you have a clutch or not - turning over a disengaged engine ought in principle to be easier. Len Wingfield’s comment on starting was: “I sympathise with Judith over 2 stroke starting problems, but given clean fresh fuel, correctly mixed, and the throttle and choke in their correct positions, most properly serviced outboards will start on the first or second pull. Nevertheless a new replacement spark plug (and its spanner) should be carried. Operating an outboard motor is not a black art; it is much easier than working a sewing machine. I have stripped and reassembled a Seagull motor at night, half way across the Channel, rolling in heavy seas, yet I have no natural mechanical aptitude”.

Electric outboards

The advantages are obvious - clean, quiet and very light (apart from the batteries) but I’ve decided against this for the purposes for which we want an outboard - i.e. at sea, even if only in some pretty sheltered and kind conditions. When I first started looking into outboards they were very tempting: then we wanted it for day sailing from a rented cottage on the Norfolk Broads where electric would have been ideal, and we wouldn’t have been adding to the pollution in such a very sensitive environment. But realistically, charging them up means that only day sailing is possible, and day sailing from somewhere with a power supply, which our Studland camping doesn’t have. I didn’t get a totally clear answer on whether they can only be used in fresh water (as one chandler had told me), or whether one can use them on the sea - the nearest was a comment that some electrics could and some couldn’t, which may explain why I got conflicting advice from those trying to sell me one. Other big drawbacks to electrics are the weight of the batteries, and worries about sulphuric acid: in the boat in the event of a capsize; and also if one got dropped and cracked. A leaky battery can explode.

Ted Jones mentioned the drawback that you can’t just look in the tank to judge how soon you’re going to need to refuel. And weight means that carrying a spare battery “in case” is hardly realistic.

Several people referred me to George Saffrey’s article in Bulletin 165 reporting favourably on electric outboards. However a couple mentioned that they thought he’d had problems since, but was still persevering. He had certainly used his on the sea.

The Wayfarer Book thinks they are not man enough for the sea (the Wayfarer being a larger boat than the Leader, and they are probably thinking of more serious sea work than we, at least, would be doing).

Diesel

I really displayed my ignorance in asking about diesel outboards. People put it in various kind ways. Suffice it to say that you’re looking at a minimum of 18 - 20 hp with a diesel.

Shaft length

I’d never even thought of this as a question. As a general proposition, the longer the shaft the more efficient the outboard - you’re quite likely mostly to want your outboard (or likely most to want your outboard) in choppy situations, and it can’t do much if the propeller is out of the water half the time. But it’s a balancing act, because a longer propeller means you’re more likely to hit the bottom and break the shear pin. Because of this one person advised me to go for a longer shaft than standard, but based on Len Wingfield’s advice specifically concerning Leaders we may go for a standard length for our particular boat: “The motor I tried with my Leader was a Seagull 40-Plus long-shaft. Under high power this long shaft motor pulled the stern down, but the Leader’s transom strength was quite adequate. With the Leader’s low freeboard, a long-shaft motor is not necessary”. Confusingly, standard length is sometimes called short length. Phillip Ashwin was very pleased with his adjustable outboard bracket, which he had bought from a mail order chandlery and all one has to do is bolt it onto the transom. It is stainless steel, and not cheap, but had so far given excellent service for 4 years. If our budget runs to it, maybe we will go for this and have the best of all worlds.

How to fit an outboard

Advice often repeated was to fit it to the port side (so as to reduce the chances of fouling the mainsheet with a likely result of capsize), and to keep the engine’s tiller fixed and steer with the “real” tiller. Position the engine so that it does not hit the rudder when you turn. David Sumner said that his Suzuki “can be held straight ahead using a wing nut clamp, but it does tend to slip and allow the engine to turn, so a small lanyard is needed to tie the engine tiller in position”.

Fit a piece of plywood to the inside and outside of the transom to stiffen if, as there is a lot of leverage when running fast. I may not be much of a mechanic, but I do know enough physics to get a vivid picture when Eric Scholes pointed out that the thrust from the motor is trying to push the top back (because the propeller is going the other way and the mounting acts as the pivot of a lever). David Sumner went into more detail about fixing: “To mount the engine I made two squares of plywood 0.75 inches thick and varnished them. The one goes each side of the wooden transom and a single fixing goes through. This fixing is actually a U-bolt, which serves the dual purpose of providing an attachment for the engine safety lanyard”.

Always secure the outboard to the boat with a good strong lanyard. Then when you lose it overboard you don’t lose it altogether. (No one told me whether an outboard engine enjoys a full ducking in sea water, but I suppose they recover.)

Where to keep it / how to transport it

Aidan de la Mare’s advice was: “The motor can be stowed safely on a cushion or sack on the floor of the boat and clamped to the centreboard case when on the trailer or under way. It should not leak petrol when lying on its side if you remember to turn off the tap and shut the air bleed screw on the filler cap, but sometimes one doesn’t, and don’t forget to open them both again when you start it.” Mike Lewis and Sarah Goddard also trail theirs in this way, on a bed of buoyancy aids and bungeed to a seat to stop it moving around.

Ted Jones’ comment was: “Do they leak smelly petrol? If you have a good one and all the seals are good, no they don’t. But if you’re buying second-hand, they, like old cars, tend to have oil oozing out from odd places”. Peter Ingram’s advice was to switch off the petrol tap about 100 yards from the slipway, to drain the carburettor and minimise smell.

John Lipstone reckoned an outboard was safer trailed in the boot, because anything in the boat tends to rattle and damage it. If you turn the fuel off and run it until it stops there is no fuel in the carburettor to leak when it is put on its side, and the fuel tanks usually have good seals.

David Parkinson said to make sure one laid it on the correct side so that it wouldn’t leak oil from the crank case.

Eric Scholes had a brilliant idea which I would adopt if it didn’t mean sacrificing the beautiful waterproof plastic “roof” for our trailer we invested in. He clips his outboard onto the trailer between the trailer and the car, just as if it were on the transom, keeping it upright.

Don’t sail with it on the transom - wrap it in a waterproof tarpaulin beside the centreboard case.

Maintenance

After each use run it for about half a minute in a barrel (a clean dustbin does too) of fresh water. Think of where the salt has been in a water-cooled engine. But wipe down the outside too, to get rid of the salt. Worth the effort for trouble-free motoring. Don’t wrap the power head in plastic or nylon or it will condense and rust.

I was told to change the oil and the spark plug once a year, but beyond this views on maintenance differed widely, so all I can do is quote: “Worth the expense of taking it back to the supplier each autumn and get him to go over it, he knows all the right things to do”. And at the other extreme: “These modern Japanese things are well put together and reliable and aren’t really made to be serviced. They are made to work until the end of their life, and then they die.” You choose, as they say!

Peter Ingram had this good advice: “Use the motor at every possible occasion, two strokes thrive on hard work - don’t just leave it until you really need it.” Hard to square with one’s wish to sail as much as possible. Perhaps we just need to be on the water much more (if only ...)

Why have an outboard at all?

I received plenty of advice against outboards - advice that was in one sense music to my ears because, all things being equal, of course I’d rather sail: instead of relying on an outboard, improve my sailing skills (and - rather more difficult - convince my children they like sailing); get to know tides and tidal streams; study the weather and its local effects. But nearly all ended up concluding that nonetheless one might have good reason to have an outboard, and several (all of whom I know, from reading my Bulletin, are more substantial sailors than we) had bought them specifically because of places like the entrance to Poole Harbour.

My conclusions

As soon as domestic life here gets a bit calmer, I shall be out looking for a 2 hp or a bit more petrol engine, ideally with a clutch. A clutch is a “luxury” I like the idea of: start it and you’re off seems pretty terrifying to me, even though I know it shouldn’t (but think of it in a car!). What about 2 stroke or 4 stroke, which I now understand after a fashion? The jury is still out. My environmental wishes are at war with the advice I am getting from my chief mechanic and maintenance man, but I think (fear?) I can see which is going to win!

Those who telephoned I obviously thanked at the time. I’m fairly certain I have written to thank all those who wrote to me, but if I have missed anyone I’m afraid its because of the domestic upheavals I mentioned at the beginning of this article, and I am very grateful even if I have failed to say so personally, Some of those who replied get mentioned by name here, others not. That is partly because I have tended to quote from letters rather than telephone calls (because where a similar point was made by telephone and in a letter, there is less chance of me misrepresenting the point if I quote the letter); but apart from that it has just a case of having to make difficult choices if the whole of this Bulletin was to avoid being about outboards!