Seriously... Got to factor supply and get you a little trailer, mucho easier lake weekends.

I've had a Sevlor for 20 years. Before the brand name was sold off they made boats of the same quality as Zodiac. Dual chambers, inflatable keel, 9hp rating. Now they only appear to make toy boats. If you see a older one forsale check it out....well worth the money.

It is registered and I will get the title from the Marine Board within a few weeks. Agreed on the 2-stroke thing. I may upgrade to a 4-stroke later. As for deflation, see below.

Got one- plan to use it to haul behind the Land Rover and save a bunch of time.

Cheers,

Paul.

Wow. That's quite a deal. If I saw that for $950, I'd go ahead and buy it without thinking.

I never go anywhere without my Johnson.

Argh, I hate 2-stroke outboards. I've had two, and both were the same http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...leys/loki5.gif, evil, out to get me. I would test them in a bucket of water - fine, work well. Carry them across the road and put them on the boat. Wait for a break in the waves and go for it. Scream - dead outboard. I would row like a lunatic and get out the back, then five minutes later it would decide to go. One an eight horse Mercury and the other a four horse Mercury.

The next outboard I buy is going to be a 4-stroke Honda.

We have a Zodiac with a 9.9 Nissan 2 stroke. Alone in it you can easily plane. It's a 50:1 mix I believe so very little smoke, light weight and compact. FUN!

Congratulations Paul! Summer has just begun for you! That looks like a perfect size, let us know how the shake down cruise goes/ went.

Update:

Boat was fun, but stern (arse end) heavy, especially with my 180# sat next to it. Better with Mrs. K up in the bow, but she's only 100#.

2-stroke was a PITA.

So the other day I paid $700 for an 8hp Mercury 4-stroke. Much quieter & a lot less smoke.

Problem is, the new motor weighs about a million tons.

Questions:

-Is the 8hp 4-stroke going to feel similar power wise to the 8hp 2-stroke? (Stupid question but everything I read says they're 'different').

-Is the new motor going to be too much for my 9.5' boat? (Excuse for a bigger boat? :-))

-Is there even a market for an 8hp 2-stroke nowadays? Or should I keep the 2-stroke as backup/just-in-case/sell it & the smaller boat when we move to the USVI in 5 years?

Thanks in advance!

Paul.

A friend of mine has a similar boat to yours and I believe the HP limit on it is 5 or 6...
$700 for a 8HP Merc / 4 stroke seems like a good deal. If I were in your .... 'boat' I would sell
both 8HP motors and buy a brand new 5 or 6HP Nissan/Honda/Tohatsu 4 stroke.

There is little demand for two strokes like you have. They are old technology and finicky. We had a 2000 Jojnson on our pontoon and after a year or two it was so unreliable it made going to the cabin unpleasant. The startup ritual involved setting the choke precisely, set the throttle just so, say a little prayer, crank three times, push the throttle all the way forward, turn off the choke, say another prayer, crank it hard, say more prayers as it turns over, curse loudly as ihe engine catches but dies.

Three years ago we switched to a new Evinrude 2 stroke with ETech direct injection. It fits into the Johnson engine harness and is cutting edge technology. At the time it was the only two stroke that met current EPA standards and can go on Lake Tahoe if we wanted. It has an ECU so you just turn the key, it starts, you go. Every time. It was the price of a first class cruise for the entire family, but when you turn the key and hear it pop off the first crank, every time, it's worth it. Our gas consumption was cut about in half. We get almost a year out of a couple of quarts of oil. We used to hand mix and that was a drag.

Everything is a compromise. Four strokes are more reliable than the old two strokes but are heavy and expensive. New two strokes are just plain expensive. I think you'll be happiest with a new two stroke but it might be more than you'd like to spend.