What makes my Dinghy go! (part 1)

I've had a 5 year love / hate affair with outboard engines.
It began when I finished building my V-10, a 10 foot V bottom plywood and epoxy dinghy (pictured in earlier posts). After 7 months of building and sanding and painting and sanding and sanding and sanding and (you get the picture) it was ready for launch.
I went out and got a Yamaha 2.5 hp 4 stroke. about $800 bucks. Worked like a champ, pushed the boat so well that water pumped out of the centerboard slot !!!!

Note I say that likes it a good thing..it is if you like wet feet and hind ends. I guess I used it all of 5 times before my buddies old 1970's  Johnson 6hp died on his Catalina 22. We were 'campaigning' his 22 in our yacht clubs Friday night beer can races so I ponied up and put the Yammy 2.5 on the back. Pushed it like a champ. The GPS showed 5.4kts which is just about hull speed on that boat.
He used the engine for 1.5 seasons, then moved up to a bigger boat.

By then we had also moved from our Hunter 31 - on which we never used the dinghy I'd built - to our Gemini 105Mc which we'd gotten a AB 10 foot RIB for. I hung the 2.5 on the back of the RIB and life was good - I again used it about 5-8 times. Once was to push our Gemini into the slip when it's diesel died.
Now that's a separate story in and of itself. It involves Mary steering the boat into the slip for the first time ever :) (later).

Then another friend asked to borrow the Yammy for his inflatable and off to his shed it went (never actually got used, sat in a shed for the winter).
Two things happened (one being the engine wasn't run, but the tank was full) and ethanol - ethanol being the worse of the two. The engine would NOT start the following spring. A couple hundred bucks and a carburetor rebuild later it started. Ran for the test, back into my garage.

You see, I'd decided to move up.
I'd bought a POS 1988 Suzuki DT8C 2 stroke (oil injected) outboard from a friend of a friend. I say POS (piece of s***) because when I hung it on my outboard carrier the transom mount cracked immediately on pulling the start cord.

I spent two weeks searching online for parts, then decided no way I was going to spend 300 bucks for a 500 buck Suz I didn't even know would run. I slapped JB Weld on it, put on some stainless straps and basically rednecked it up. That broke, but I got lucky, another neighboring friend want to practice some aluminum welding. He did the magic melting stick waving, put another JB weld overlay on it and then topped it off with bigger stainless straps. You can just see the hairline crank in the mount if of the picture.
I convinced myself it would work, mounted it on my RIB and pushed off on a 4 mile river and Bay trip to take the dinghy to where I slip Patience Two.
Ran like a champ.
The Yammy 2.5? Abandoned to loneliness in the garage.

I mean like I'm planning around with a grin on my face  - why would I go back to a frumpy, slow 2.5hp ?

You'll never guess what happened then.

I seldom used the Suz 8hp (maybe twice that season). It began acting up. It ran on old gas and hope all season. It was neglected, it was abused. I used it to help a buddy move his Helms 25 5 miles, it barely reached the water from it's transom (it has a 21 inch shaft, it needed two middle aged guys sinking the stern down to get juice up it's intake). About half way there it went to half power...

Out comes the Yammy from it's place of shame. Onto the transom.
Okay, off the transom and onto a saw horse. No start.
Out comes the carb cleaner, brushes and picks. Buff, polish, spray and pray. Starts. I'm sorta liking this yammy by now...
Back on the transom. NO start. Four more trips back and forth, no go.
It's in the garage. Available for a good price :)

In a fit of despair, the Suzuki comes back out - and with a little ether and a lot of pulling zoom zoom. Lots of smoke, very little water (okay mostly steam) from the outlet.
30 minutes of settled, no smoke solid idle and instant acceleration on throttle up and I figure its time to carry the 63 pound beasty down to the dinghy and give it a whirl.

I'm now a fan of 2 strokes; it's still working. Sometimes only on one cylinder, sometimes on both but it runs.
Unfortunately 2 strokes aren't 'green' so it's hard to get them anymore. Just old ones...

Coming from plane to non-plane when one cylinder dies  is not so much fun. That's where it sat this summer, local within sight (and paddle) of the house stuff only. A utility boat, not a fun "let's go explore this anchorage" boat.

The Suzuki 8 is currently hanging on the back of my friends Coronado 25 (mentioned previously), he needs a motor well rebuild and to get the SeaKing 7.5 hp it came with working. We used it on the "first sail" last week and true to form when we cranked the throttle up it decided to be lazy and went to 1 cylinder. Still plenty, but not confidence inspiring.  It does however start and run (when properly choked etc..). Runs on river water mixed with beer is my opinion (okay, river water wasn't the first nasty fluid that came to mind). 

Amazingly the 25 hp Honda 2 stroke on the back of the Lyman is a boaters dream. I'm going to get it professionally winterized and store it in the garage this winter. I might have learned my lesson.
Stay tuned for part two, let's see :)