Electric engines

Dear All,

Getting ready for the new season - bring it on! We had a nasty incident last year where our 40hp yamaha blew when we were at the back of Lambay - we had no reserve. Luckily, two punters towed us abck to skerries. We replaced the the 40hp with a 60hp and are looking to buy a reserve engine. We have a 15ft Seahog and were wondering would an electric engine do as a reserve? I was looking at something like a Shakespeare or Yamaha 34lb engine.

What do you think?

JD.

Well now.

The last 15 foot Seahog with an electric engine as an aux that I saw..... I wouldn't like to repeat (again!) what happened to it.....! :shock:

cue Phenwick Mist and ConorH............


:D :D :D

Hi there,

So thats a no to the electric engine??!!! Please expand before I buy one!

Jay.

Tanglerat , had to see this before I head off here - you got me curious , thought your text was having a laff !!

Here goes - JD save yourself a few hundred quid - hire a diving suit and hop into the harbour at Port Na Blagh - brand new , never used Minn Kota Riptide 70lb awaits rescue !
Due to excess alcohol the previous night , and a severly hungover/still drunk deckhand, the engine was not raised out of the water and when I gave the main engine throttle it was ripped off the transom. Costly lesson learned - no liquor the night before, and don't put a hungover brother in charge off the aux !!

Back to the question , the 70lb thrust Minn Kota works as well as the wee 4hp mariner on Lough Muckno. Get a Minn Kota Riptide though - they cost a few quid more but are made for salt water. And if any one calls them egg beaters - give them a 2 fingered salute !

You might want to consider this though...electric engines use a lot of battery power in the sea. If you are having probs with your regular engine it will probably mean you r batterry level will already be on the low side form unsuccessful start attempts...now you in a situation :shock: You can always carry a spare batterry whioch you should anyway...but easy to forget to charge back up!!! I would have thought more plus`s to having an Aux fuel engine.....easier to fix too!!

A tip though...wait till yoire going to the states..buy the engine and put a handle through the box...put it through as luggage :)

I did that with a 36 lb one last year...cost $96 dollars!!! same engine back home I saw for €250......big saving!

We get 4-5 hours on the lake with an electric engine. You need a special battery ( deep charge I think it's called). Mine is 100Ah. You will also need a pulse charger. I use the same one that my wife has for charging the battery on her golf trolley.

Have never used the engine on the sea and do not know how it would fare out in strong currents. May try it this summer.

I use my one on lakes in the west and cause of the wind it does shorten the batterry life considerably. Make sure its for sea use or else you will only get one use out of it. Not sure how confident I would be using one if things got choppy though......pick up a good Aux 2nd hand .....not to expensive if youre patient..well compared to new anyway...

i wouldnt use leccy myself as an aux, the horsepower just isnt high enough for my liking. we have a 32lbs thrust rhino and its just about able to push a very veyr light 10 foot punt up a moderate river. the minn kota we had on it was no better.

even with double that thrust on a boat that weighs many times what a punt does i would think you would really struggle against wind and tide.

we had the rhino and our 4hp yamaha out on a lake, against the wind the leccy only did 1.5 knots, the yamaha did 6.5.

for manouvering the electrics are good, handy as you just twist the handle and off they go , but i would want one as my only aux