engine for sailboat dingy

[Kayamore]

we have a used 32 ft sailboat as a new owner. We have an achilles we were going to use as a dingy but no engine for it. What type of inexpensive engine do you recommend for the 2 of us. The boat has a mount on the stern railing. Thanks

[Sailmonkey]

Craigslist will be your best pal here. Personally I'd look for a 2-3.5 hp tohatsu or similar.

[svHannabel]

We have a 2hp Honda four stroke that's been a great little motor. They can be had new for about $1000, or used for much less. While this is fairly simple motor for a four stroke (air cooled, no shifting, etc.), the down side may be that they're a bit noisey.

[CFR]

2 wellmade wooden oars and you feel great each time you reach the beach, good exercise and all your neighbours will love yoo. i have a hard dinghy and left the outboard home...... everybody hates this outborad in a quite bay

[capn_billl]

I just bought a cheap trolling motor, ($100), used, and a deep cycle battery.

No lugging a big heavy outboard off of the back of your boat in rolling, pitching seas, no trying to hit a moving target from a moving target, with a 50LB mansized deadweight. and then dragging gas tank, gas lines, etc...

Now I just step on with both battery, and motor slung under one arm, plug in and go.

No yanking on starter cord, (if you have electric start you have to drag a battery onboard anyway). No flooded carb, no mixing oil and gas, no wet spark plugs, tweaking with choke, leaking fuel lines because of alchohol in the gas, using wire hanger to clean cooling intakes, dissassembling entire outboard to change out bad water impeller, sudden stop because you sucked something into intake and it overheated, or got an air bubble, or water into fuel line. More yanking on power cord while you figure it out and drift into shoals, or path of a big ship, or out to sea.

Just quietly putter along, in complete silence, it's as hard as flipping a light switch.

I still have the outboard, but rarely use it, unless I have a long way to go, and it's really choppy, I just use the trolling motor.

[easterly38]

I would look specifically at weight as opposed to horse power...something light enough you can easily carry.

I picked up a used Suzuki 5 hp from a friend that runs great and is very reliable. The downside is that it is a little heavier than I would like, which is why the previous owner sold it. He purchased a new Suzuki that has less hp but is lighter and easier for him to load and unload.

Our dinghy is a 10ft fiberglass that is VERY heavy and we could have easily gone with less than 5hp and been happy.