kicker on 16' cruiser

[zuunami]

Earlier this year I posted questions about the best kicker for a 16' cruiser, and got a lot of great advice, as usual. We ended up getting a short shaft 5hp Mercury (our main is a 50hp Merc), and went out for the first time yesterday.

We were running in a river that feeds into the ocean, and went out a bit into the ocean, and the tides weren't that significant, nor was the wind.

The kicker was not very responsive, I'm very glad we didn't go with a smaller hp. I'm not sure if it's the shaft length (the top of the prop blade when in the top position is just exactly at the bottom of the boat), or the fact that it's not a high thrust prop. Although I recall someone saying earlier that a high thrust prop is most beneficial at high speeds, which is not what we want to use it for.

And, we don't want to put it on a plate so that we can submerse it further, or back so that we get more water, it's hard enough to sit back there and use it without it being further back.

Anyway, we're going to get the high thrust prop and see how that does, just wanted to pass on our experience.

[lloyds]

Don't bother changing the prop. The motor is too small for anything other than trolling in calm water. You won't be able to control it in a breeze or fight current. You need a twin cylinder of 8 hp or a little more to be effective.

[srbaum]

Rober and Karen,
If you desire control and the best performance, at or below 6 kts., the high thrust prop IS the answer. I probably sell on average 20 of the 4/5/6 hp Tohatsu’s (also sold as Nissan, Mercury and 4 stroke Evinrude’), per year. If that outboard is pushing a 12’ aluminum skiff, the standard prop is the best choice, but moving a heavy object, with a lot of windage, the high thrust prop is night a day.
My 24’ long x 18’ wide trimaran has one of these outboards and it pushes it at 5 kts at about 1/2 throttle. Before I had the high thrust prop, I had to crank the throttle to wide open to get the same speed and had very poor docking characteristics.

[zuunami]

Thanks, Steve, we have one on order, we thought we'd give it a try. At least we'll have an extra prop Thanks for all of your past advice, hope you're right about this too (I think you probably are

[thataway]

What Steve says makes a lot of sense. 5 HP with the correct prop and gearig will push a boat considerably larger at a decent speed. My father's 26' sailboat, with hull form very similar to a C Dory 25, would run right along at 5 knots with a 5 hp older (1930's) outboard. I rebuilt a very similar motor to be used on a 15 foot skiff, at a summer camp, and it did very well in some bad conditions.

Yes a 8 Hp high thrust will do better, but don't give up on a 5 hp.

I am running a 2 1/2 Suzuki on my 18' catamaran, and it pushes right along.

[zuunami]

Thanks, no, we're not giving up on the 5hp, we don't want any more weight aft than we have to. We'll make it work

[zuunami]

What we may regret is getting a short shaft instead of long, it sits so high in the water. We'll see