Dinghy question for a 25...

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ken35216

New member
If all goes as planned I'll be picking up my new to me C-Dory 25 next weekend. It has a 9.9 Suzuki kicker and I was thinking I could use that for the motor on the dinghy? Can you put a big enough dink on a 25 C-Dory to hold a 9.9?

Any idea will be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
I imagine one could, but it'd be huge, heavy and nearly impossible to load and unload into the water by hand. We have a 7.5' one that uses a 4 horse max and it's about all I can handle by myself.
 
I will be by myself most of the time too. I just checked and the 9.9 weighs in at 93 lbs. That's a lot!! I may have to rethink this.
 
For us on our 22 dinghy weight of both engine and dinghy was a crucial driver. We ended up with a West Marine RU260 at a little over 50# and a Honda 2HP about 25#.
 
Bad idea because of that weight. I can handle my 2.5 Suzuki and my inflatable by myself and I'm way past middle age. Any more than 30 or so pounds is asking for trouble to put on and off a dinghy in the water. If you are going to have the dinghy on a crane, or tow it, then load er up!
 
Not at all impossible. I have used 9.9's, 15's and 25 hp on inflatable dinghy. The clue is to use a davit. On the C Dory 25, and the Tom Cat both had the Garhauer davit rigged so it would handle an ouboard if necessary. The 25 specifically had the davit so it could pick up the outboard form the engine bracket and transfer it to the dinghy transom. One person could do it, but a lot easier with two.

The inflatable floor dinghy we use currently is rated for a 10 hp outboard. Does it need it--no, I think 6 would be OK for two on a plane--but I can plane it with the 3.5 and one person. But you have to have a good hard floor (inflatable is best, and easiest to set up) and a good internal (to the bottom of the boat) keel. This dinghy is about 70 lbs. So we can pick it up and put on the 25 or even 22 roof.
 
My dinghy is rated for 10hp but I only use a 3.5.hp and it works good. I have a 5hp in the shop that I need to get working, keeps stalling, that I have used. I can lift either on and off the dinghy at the transon step but I would not want to go any bigger unless I had a lift and sling.
 
thataway":30uv1zf1 said:
Not at all impossible. I have used 9.9's, 15's and 25 hp on inflatable dinghy. The clue is to use a davit. On the C Dory 25, and the Tom Cat both had the Garhauer davit rigged so it would handle an ouboard if necessary. The 25 specifically had the davit so it could pick up the outboard form the engine bracket and transfer it to the dinghy transom. One person could do it, but a lot easier with two.
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Click to expand...

Where would I find those? This is interesting.
 
Using the small outboard for two purposes only makes sense. We got a 10 HP Honda for the get me home motor and we use it on the Achilles dinghy. Below is the hoist I made in action. the Gaurhaur hoist Bob has above would work just as well. Mine (and I assume his,) comes apart and stows in the aft locker, with the spare anchor, batteries, etc. The hoist is not a 1 person job, Judy runs the hoist (the motor only weight 110 lbs., 55 Kg,) I'm in the dinghy positioning the motor. Takes a couple of minutes, and beats carrying 3 motors aboard. I also had to make a plate to lift the motor up on the dinghy, since we got a long shaft motor. A standard length would have been just fine, since the motor mount lowers the motor way down. The second picture shows how we transfer the motor to the dinghy. The red strap is the support from the hoist to the handle on the back of the cabin.
HOIST_MOTOR.sized.jpg
aaa
HOIST_DINGHY_1.sized.jpg


Boris
 
Boris has a nice practical davit. One of the advantages of the Garheaur is the nice large low friction blocks with a 6:1 ratio, as well as the jam cleat --although you don't have to use it that way. On our 25 the davit was located in the splash well, and had good overhand as Boris's does. Yes it folds into two or 3 pats and stows easily. You can also put in several mounts to use it in different area.
 
I'm really impressed by that davit setup. I have a 9.9 on another boat and I wouldn't have dreamed of using that heavy motor on a dingy for a dory. I had planned on just using an electric motor or oars.
 
Before switching to the Tom Cat, I had a similar set up with a 9.5 HP kicker on a 24 foot Sea Sport, and chose not to use that engine for the dinghy. Several reasons.

Dinghy size. It takes a pretty large dinghy to be reasonably balanced fore and aft with a 95 lb. engine on the transom. A large dinghy weighs a lot by itself, and I found that the lighter the dinghy weight, the more often and casual I am about putting it over the side...and I am a reasonably strong guy.

You will also probably place this larger dinghy on the roof of the cabin of the CD. That is quite high above the vessels center of gravity and you will find that any extra weight you have up there, adversely effects the vessels rolling motion, particularly when running slow with a beam sea.

For these reasons, we have kept the same 6.5 foot 45 lb. dinghy for the past 15 years, in spite of changing the boat it goes on 3 times.

Outboard transfer. Sometimes when you want to launch the dinghy most is when conditions are the worst. You can just throw the dinghy over the side with a long painter and it will be fine, but not the engine. Transferring a heavy outboard from the transom of the mother vessel to the transom of a pitching dinghy is a good way to magically convert the outboard into an anchor.

Engine tie in system. You will probably wind up with some method of tieing the 9.5 HP kicker to the steering system on the larger outboard. If not immediately, then the need for this will become evident with the pasage of time. Disconnecting the connection can itself be quite a hassle in rough conditions.

I have an older 2 HP Yamaha 2 cycle outboard for the little dinghy, but also have an almost new 5 HP Yamaha 4 cycle sitting here at home. The difference in weight is only about 20 lb., but that alone makes me always reach for the smaller engine when deciding which one to load on the Tom Cat.

If you ask the ladies about this, the lower weight set up will win every time.

Bottom line. Both for reasons of safety and convenience, you want that whole dinghy set up to be as convenient to use as possible.

Keep it light.


KWare
El Gato Thomas
CD Tom Cat 25.5
 
I maintained a fleet of Junior Sailing program instructor boats and had take the motors off every week during the summer. Even on dry land it is not easy, from a rolling boat to a jumping dingy is not my cup of tea. Plus you have to put some torque on the mounting bolts, disconnect the gas line, unfasten the security cable/locks (you will not have a motor for long without these), perhaps remove not just unfasten a tie rod to the main motor, and if you are using the small motor to charge its own or another battery bank, those cables have to come off also. The handles on most are fragile and the tilt mechanism is not all that stout. The cases scratch if you look at them and if it starts to get away from you, you can hurt yourself trying to save a $25+ investment. I only was able to salvage one out of three motors than went for a saltwater swim and that was a hassle. If it were me, I would read again the posts on how much HP you need to move a 25 at hull speed and consider a smaller motor with a bigger prop and a prop guard/nozzle. I moved lots of boats much bigger than a CD25 with less than 6hp and never missed the weight or hassle of a bigger motor. Hope you new boat is a blessing!
Bob
 
It's amazing what a small engine CAN DO. I have towed & pushed a 42' Grand Banks [25 tons loaded] with a 8 hp Merc, std prop on a 10.5 rigid bottom dink. Granted no current, but we made good head way. In non Inlet/current areas I would think a 6-8 hp would work fine as a dink motor or get home motor on a 22-25 boat. Roy
 
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