I stumbled accross an old Evinrude Junior outboard motor today in a
local chandlers: asking price £60. They assure me it's in good working
order. It looks like it's well over 10 years old. I have the option of
taking it back if I'm not happy. Research tells me it's probably 2hp.
Does this sound like a good deal? I want it to power a 14ft open
canoe. Have never owned an outboard motor before. Can anyone give me
any tips on faults to look out for, or where I can obtain an owner's
manual or any such helpful info? The guy in the shop says "you just
put fuel in (50:1) and off you go; there's nothing much else to worry
about." He says I can lay it flat in the boot of my car when it's not
in use. Is that correct?

Thanks for any info...

Al D

Al D wrote:
I stumbled accross an old Evinrude Junior outboard motor today in a
local chandlers: asking price £60. They assure me it's in good working
order. It looks like it's well over 10 years old. I have the option of
taking it back if I'm not happy. Research tells me it's probably 2hp.
Does this sound like a good deal? I want it to power a 14ft open
canoe. Have never owned an outboard motor before. Can anyone give me
any tips on faults to look out for, or where I can obtain an owner's
manual or any such helpful info? The guy in the shop says "you just
put fuel in (50:1) and off you go; there's nothing much else to worry
about." He says I can lay it flat in the boot of my car when it's not
in use. Is that correct?

Thanks for any info...

Al D

Other than the fact this is rec.boats.PADDLE, I do have a little
experience with putting a small motor on my 17.5 ft. Folbot. I used a
2.5 Mercury on a side gunnel mount. The motor would drive the boat at
about 10 kts. Thrust being offset, caused the boat to steer better one
way than the other, and neither felt very responsive. I found it best
to continue to use the standard rudder, and keep the motor set straight
for thrust only. If your canoe is square back and the motor can be
mounted on the back, then these may not be issues.

The main problem occurred when the boat rolled, and the motor ended up
holding the boat in a sidways position! The boat would not sink,
because of float bags, but being full of water, I could not roll it
upright either with the additional weight of the motor. Luckily a power
boater came along and towed me to shore where I was able to get it
upright and pumped out. After that incident, I retired the motor.

I figured that the only time I would use the motor, was if there was a
strong current that I was trying to go against, and that would be the
time It would flip on me. The best it would do is overcome a 10 knt
current, which I could just as easily paddle against without the hassle
of the motor.

So I am back to paddling, and sailing which is another story! HYY

Hanta-Yo-Yo wrote:
snip

: So I am back to paddling, and sailing which is another story! HYY

Have you tried sailing in a canoe? Just wondering if anyone ever used
one of those spring creek sailing kits...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)

I have a friend who competes all over sailing a canoe, I honestly do not
know anything about the rig, but apparently there are some good ones to be
had.


"Chicago Paddling-Fishing" wrote in message
...
Hanta-Yo-Yo wrote:
snip

: So I am back to paddling, and sailing which is another story! HYY

Have you tried sailing in a canoe? Just wondering if anyone ever used
one of those spring creek sailing kits...

--
John Nelson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)

On 20 Jun 2006 07:05:43 -0700, "Hanta-Yo-Yo"
wrote:

Other than the fact this is rec.boats.PADDLE,

Yes... I mostly paddle. The outboard is really a safety measure to get
me out of trouble.

I do have a little
experience with putting a small motor on my 17.5 ft. Folbot. I used a
2.5 Mercury on a side gunnel mount. The motor would drive the boat at
about 10 kts. Thrust being offset, caused the boat to steer better one
way than the other, and neither felt very responsive. I found it best
to continue to use the standard rudder, and keep the motor set straight
for thrust only. If your canoe is square back and the motor can be
mounted on the back, then these may not be issues.

No, I'm in the process of making a bracket to mount the motor off the
starboard side of stern.

The main problem occurred when the boat rolled, and the motor ended up
holding the boat in a sidways position! The boat would not sink,
because of float bags, but being full of water, I could not roll it
upright either with the additional weight of the motor. Luckily a power
boater came along and towed me to shore where I was able to get it
upright and pumped out. After that incident, I retired the motor.

I've read of other people having the same problem. One canoeist said
he fixed the motor to steer straingt ahead and used a paddle for
steering.

I am guessing that the rolling problem you experienced would be less
likely to happen if the prop is higher up rather than well below the
bottom of the canoe. Would anyone agree?

I figured that the only time I would use the motor, was if there was a
strong current that I was trying to go against, and that would be the
time It would flip on me. The best it would do is overcome a 10 knt
current, which I could just as easily paddle against without the hassle
of the motor.

Hmm.. you must have more stamina than me!

Al D

On 20 Jun 2006 18:17:51 -0700, "Tinkerntom"
wrote:

Yes... I mostly paddle. The outboard is really a safety measure to get
me out of trouble.

That's the problem, if you get in trouble paddling, you won't be in a
position to deploy a motor to get you out of that same trouble.

I wasn't referring to that kind of 'trouble', actually.

Al D

Al D wrote:
On 20 Jun 2006 18:17:51 -0700, "Tinkerntom"
wrote:

Yes... I mostly paddle. The outboard is really a safety measure to get
me out of trouble.

That's the problem, if you get in trouble paddling, you won't be in a
position to deploy a motor to get you out of that same trouble.

I wasn't referring to that kind of 'trouble', actually.

Al D

Well, now you have me curious, what kind of trouble are you actually
referring too? TnT

Weigh the outboard. Strap the same weight to the end of your
boat. Capsize the boat. Does the weighted end point straight down
to the bottom? If so, you will have created a serious problem by
ADDING an outboard. Tom McCloud


On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:35:52 +0100, Al D wrote:


I stumbled accross an old Evinrude Junior outboard motor today in a
local chandlers: asking price £60. They assure me it's in good working
order. It looks like it's well over 10 years old. I have the option of
taking it back if I'm not happy. Research tells me it's probably 2hp.
Does this sound like a good deal? I want it to power a 14ft open
canoe. Have never owned an outboard motor before. Can anyone give me
any tips on faults to look out for, or where I can obtain an owner's
manual or any such helpful info? The guy in the shop says "you just
put fuel in (50:1) and off you go; there's nothing much else to worry
about." He says I can lay it flat in the boot of my car when it's not
in use. Is that correct?

Thanks for any info...

Al D

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 02:06:27 GMT, Tom McCloud
wrote:

Weigh the outboard. Strap the same weight to the end of your
boat. Capsize the boat. Does the weighted end point straight down
to the bottom? If so, you will have created a serious problem by
ADDING an outboard. Tom McCloud

Hi Tom, Thanks for the comment. It's a very good point. I'm installing
an extra bouyancy bag at the stern to counteract the weight of the
motor. Luckily the motor is surprisingly lightweight.

Al D

People have been running outboards on canoes for years; Grumman used to sell
a side-mount kit for their double-ender canoes (as opposed to their
square-stern canoes that would accept a motor without an extra bracket)

I side-mounted an Evenrude 6hp on a 17' Chestnut Prospector using a
home-made birch mount, with decent results, but had two specific problems to
solve. The first was that the motor would cavitate long before getting up
to speed. I rigged some birch bark on the motor's cavitation plate and
along the side of the canoe to eliminate this. The second was the added
weight of both the motor and me crammed near the stern of the canoe. I was
forced to carry extra weight in the bow to counteract this, which of course
lessened the efficiency of a light load, but allowed me to go against the
Yukon River current solo quite easily (the river current was around 4-6 kts
and I could go upstream about 4-6 kts). The only other problem was the
cramped position the operator required to run the motor. The Chestnut is a
high-sided canoe made for carrying a load so, even with a substantial load,
another adult and camping gear for a few weeks, I had little concern of
flipping. The torque from the motor did make initial runs feel somewhat
unstable but was soon just part of the ride.

Brad Snow
s/v Aldonza

"Al D" wrote in message
...

I stumbled accross an old Evinrude Junior outboard motor today in a
local chandlers: asking price £60. They assure me it's in good working
order. It looks like it's well over 10 years old. I have the option of
taking it back if I'm not happy. Research tells me it's probably 2hp.
Does this sound like a good deal? I want it to power a 14ft open
canoe. Have never owned an outboard motor before. Can anyone give me
any tips on faults to look out for, or where I can obtain an owner's
manual or any such helpful info? The guy in the shop says "you just
put fuel in (50:1) and off you go; there's nothing much else to worry
about." He says I can lay it flat in the boot of my car when it's not
in use. Is that correct?

Thanks for any info...

Al D