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The dinghy engine, a small gasoline-operated engine with 2 to 5 HP, which pushes the Tender from A to B.
Of cause, there is always the laziness of the helmsman. To paddle would be also an option.
Well, this was my thinking until I sailed my first time in Greece. In contrast to the Baltic Sea, there is always a dinghy with outboard engine included.
After some time, I started to love this thing. It's nice to have if you have to transport your shoppings, check out shallow spots, work with the secondary anchor or remove thinks from the anchor you pulled up from the ground.
Now the problem: If you don't use this thing regulary, you usually have to clean the carburetor for around 30 minutes until the engine will comply and fulfill it's duty ;)
Moreover, at the Baltic Sea you hardly use a dinghy. That's why the engine sits all the time at the stern and the dinghy below the deck. This means: The engine sits in the elements and will slowly corrode and get slushy.
After some thinking, we found a closet behind the toilet, which has a 24cm wide door and is almost 1m high. The closet is hardly used, because the pipes from the toilet run inside of it. Since there is no floor it's mostly used to store junk.
The ruler told me: The engine will fit with 1cm space at each side!
Now the issue: How get this thing mounted in there? A standing position is not an option, because of the pipes and possible damage to the hull (of the engine).
Because the engine has to be placed inside the closet firstly and then clamped stuck securely (to clamp it from behind is no option - no space), there was the need of a removeable tray.
I prepared this at home and a nice crewmember did saw and rasp it for about 2 hours until it did fit nicely. Now you have to put the engine inside the closet, then lift it a bit to get the tray installed and then lift the clamps over it. Tighten the screws and it's done! I know - this sounds and is complicated, but with a little practice the job is finished in 2 minutes.
So! Thats is! Close the door, good night lillte engine ;) Your time will come!
PS: The propeller has to be removed, but thats easy to do.
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Good solution!
That's a good solution I guess. I am still a greenhorn!
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Nice and neat solution to have your outboard out of the way!
Yea - this thing was always in the way. Mostly when berthing, the lines fiddled around the prop.
And all time I wanted to use it, it did not work, Inside the ship it's more secure, and away from the elements.
OK - I think noone would have stolen it. It's a 2 Cylinder Evinrude, build approx 1984. But it was for free and I spend around 50€ to get it running again.
PS: I like your nickname "ultrabiker", mine "kuttmoped" comes from my last name and moped, which is in german a small motorbike. I'm a big fan of the east german motor bikes "MZ" and run a forum about them since over 10 years now https://mz-forum.com
The sweet thing with those older engines is that they are reasonably light-weight and small. Probably a more modern 4-cylinder engine weights twice as much?
Na - not twice as much. I would say that a 4T engine is around 30..40% heavier than a 2T
Hi @Kuttmoped, actually the 'biker' in 'ultrabiker' refers to a bike without an engine... mainly a Mountain Bike. I used to have a Ducati Monster though, so I do have a little connection with motorbikes.
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I concur that the motorized dhingy is a nice thing to have - but that there are periods when it's not being used at all and just in the way, we've been through it with quite some dhingies (I even have two inflatables stowed down now, and one small RIB on tow).
With only ores, the dhingy was just used for getting to and from land while anchoring up right nearby. A motorized dhingy is easily used for transport missions - and even better, a planing motorized dhingy (which can outpace the mother ship - our current dhingy has 15 HK and can do something like 20 knots while the mother ship does 5 knots under similar conditions), and one can get quite far.
With the ores, I could leave the boat by anchor only close to public transport. Now I can leave it by anchor far away and go right to the nearest train station by dhingy, like I did in Gothenburg the other day (though, it may be difficult to find places where I can leave the dhingy securely and without worries for several days in a row).
This winter and spring I've several times left the mother ship in some beautiful guest harbour or anchorage in the Oslo area, taken the dhingy and whizzed to Oslo for a quick erraind. I've even been doing boat trips with the dhingy this winter without involving the mother ship at all.
Previous summer, I had bitcoin cash trades going on at both sides of the Oslo fjord while leaving for vacation, I could wizz forth and back and do my business while my wife was continuing sailing the mother ship. I had a Sunday evening available and did a quick sightseeing in a town some 15 nm away, passing bridges without caring about their opening schedules. On our way to Gothenburg, in this Källö-Knippla harbour there was a big walking distance to get from our boat and to the laundry service - but a quick trip with the dhingy.
Also, previous summer, we had a rather embarrassing happening just before the end of our summer vacation, and the boat ended up on land just at the Swedish side of the border. I was there several times to take care of the boat - and while being there, I utilized the dhingy both for shopping, sightseeing, watching fireworks together with my son, and going to a wild beach, grilling and bathing with my son.
I've been picking up guests and crew by the dhingy.
I got to Copenhagen this Sunday, and left Monday morning. Luckily it was almost no wind, because to get downtown from the harbour it was needed to go all the way around the harbour, a quite long and exposed trip. The dhingy was heavily utilized this Sunday both for shopping and sight-seeing in narrow channels ... and even this Monday morning my crew mate took me nearer to a train station by using the dhingy.
Hey hey,
I have a very small dinghy, just 2,4 meters long. But it has an aluminum floor, so it's very stable and good to bring out the 2nd anchor if needed.
It was a cheap dinghy, actually I have some footage about it. Maybe I'll do a post about it soon.
The problem is: I have only a 35 ft Dufour, and I have to store it somewhere. If not needed not on deck. So the little dinghy fits perfect at several places ;)
Things detoriate when they are not in use. Things detoriate while they are in use as well, but in a more controlled way - one gets to see the problems as they develop and can act on them, fix things ... while on things that aren't in use, all the problems comes suddenly as a big surprise. I do remember we had a period when the dhingy was not used much at all. The steering mechanism got rusty and stopped working at all, navigation lights didn't work, engine wouldn't start ... it was really a mess. It's still a mess, leaking really a lot now (even if I'm doing a best effort on patching it up) and has other problems as well ... but at least I'm aware of the problems, and it's still useful for me.
We've been doing summer vacations in Denmark all last years, and indeed ... we don't use the dhingy much there. With the current dhingy it's at least possible to use it in Copenhagen, without the engine (or with a low-powered engine) we never bothered taking the dhingy from the harbour we've been staying at and into Copenhagen.
Well, but things are stable,
the Evinrude engine I have was laying around for about 10 years in a barn. By coincidence I was sitting there, telling that I need a small outboard, but that they are very expensive. So my friend said: I have one, not used for 10 years, want it?
So I took it and noticed that one ignition spark is not working. I dismantled the whole engine and found the issue. After it did start and run I organized a new impeller, which was quite a challange for this old thing. That were the 50€ I had to spend on this thing.
The Evinrude is awesome. Such a small engine with 2 Cylinders and 4 HP. It's so light, I even could use it on my old dinghy, which was an Intex with a flexible mount
Space is usually a scarcity onboard a boat, and It's a very fulfilling feeling to be able to utilize the space just perfectly - though, long time since I've had that feeling personally.
I think last time I had it was with my previous sail boat when I replaced the battery pack. I had one starter battery in one storage room and one consumer battery in another storage room. One problem was that I stored tools and many other metallic things there (like the handle for starting the engine by hand-cranking), I was always worried of an accidental short-circuit. When refitting I managed to find batteries fitting perfectly - and after the refit I had the smaller and less accessible room completely filled up by two consumer batteries and one smaller starting battery, while the other room could be used for safe storage of tools and equipment.
I have 3 batteries, 1 starter and 2 service. But they are in the same compartment and seperated from everything else.
I've seen some accidents with exploding lead acid batteries, so I'm kinda paranoid about safety. There are also many fuses close to the batteries to minimize the danger of a cable-fire. And never put anything metallic in there - a good battery can deliver 500+A ;)
Here is an example of a ship battery, which did explode:
The owner was lucky: He still has his eyesight, only slight chemical burns of the lungs and he had to throw up because of the fumes from the sulfuric acid ...