posted 10-26-2001 03:34 PM ET (US)        

r.

posted 10-27-2001 09:38 AM ET (US)            

First, there is the question of fuel composition: are both engines using the same type of gas, i.e., either raw gas or pre-mixed oil and gas? It might be better to have both engines use the same kind of fuel.

Second, there is the issue of the auxillary engine as a back-up or redundant engine. If this is your primary reason for the second engine (as opposed to fishermen who want it for trolling all day at low speeds), then you should also consider having a redundant fuel system. If your main engine dies from bad fuel, your auxillary won't help you unless you have a separate tank of fuel for it.

posted 10-28-2001 08:52 AM ET (US)            

In an ideal set up, you should have a remote throttle control for the auxillary engine at your usual helm station. The steering of the auxillary engine should be linked to the main engine. The linkage should be arranged so that the steering works with either engine tilted up. For example, in normal use you won't have the auxillary engine tilted down and in the water. For emergency use you may want to tilt up the main engine to get its lower unit out of the water to reduce the drag.

See http://continuouswave.com/whaler/cetacea/ pages 10 and 12 for a look at how Louie Kokinis has installed his auxullary engine; it is a very nice set up.

If you are just going trolling with the auxillary, you probably don't need to go to these lengths. You can just start the engine, set the throttle, and steer the boat using the main engine (now off) as a rudder.

If you want the auxillary to be really functional in a "come-home" situation, you probably don't want to have to hang over the transom to start it, to set the throttle, and to steer it. Imagine you're out in rough weather and you have to spend an hour or two hanging over the transom running the auxillary. How are you going to see where you are going?

What about the power of the auxillary engine? You probably want enough power to keep the boat moving and manueverable in some fairly rough conditions. A couple of horsepower will get you underway in a calm sea, but will you have enough to move the boat ahead into strong winds and head seas?

If you follow this line of thinking to the end, you'll eventually decide you need twin engines. If you look at the difference in cost between buying a 200-HP main and a 9.9 HP auxillary or buying twin 115-HP engines, the results may be surprising.

Let's see how this works out. As a source of prices I'll use some "deep discount" pricing from a big Florida outboard dealer who had a Spring promotion this year:

Plan A: Main + Auxillary
------------------------

200-HP Mercury EFI.....$9,500
9.9-HP Mercury EL......$1,750
_____________________________
TOTAL $11,250

Plan B: Dual Main
-----------------

115-HP Mercury ELPTO..$5,500
115-HP Mercury ELPTO..$5,500
____________________________
TOTAL $11,000

Pretty interesting outcome, isn't it?

Also, with twin engines, there are several advantages. If I do have trouble with one engine, I have plenty of power available in the second engine for making headway and manuevering. I might even have enough power to get up on plane and come home at 20 MPH instead of 5 MPH.

If I have engine problems, I have two identical engines, so I can use the good engine to help diagnose the problem with the bad engine. I can compare votage readings between the engines, exchange components between the engines, compare how they sound, compare how hot they run, compare their throttle settings. Having that second identical engine sitting next to the engine that has a problem is very helpful in locating the problem.

When I don't have engine troubles, I have some advantages, too. I get better boat handling at slow speeds with twin engines. I get better handling with twins at high speeds, too. The boat won't yaw as much, it probably will track better, it will be less sensitive to trim.

I may suffer a bit on fuel consumption with the twins at certain speeds compared to running a single, but when I want to go slow, as in NO-WAKE areas or trolling, I can shut off one engine and just run on a single engine. This saves hours on the engine not running, too.

You see, once you start thinking about have two engines, they start to make sense in ways you perhaps had not anticipated.

posted 10-28-2001 10:51 AM ET (US)            

To make it apples-to-apples, I should have used a Mercury 200L engine, which would sell for about $8,050 from that same source. That shaves $1,450 off the price of the Main+Aux approach, making it cheaper by about $1,200 than the the twin engine approach.

However, there are some major benefits to twins, and one that I failed to mention is the "cool" factor. That may be worth $1,200 in itself! :-)

posted 10-29-2001 04:14 PM ET (US)         

I would suggest looking at your needs not the dollars before deciding. I've had both, and feel for my style of boating and fishing single with a kicker is the way to go. The only thing I miss is the sound of 2 synced motors screaming a WOT :(

Goldammerr: Mounting is probably the biggest problem with kickers on boats with a single engine design. I’m assuming your 21 is a newer style with the transom designed for a single power. If this is the case, I would strongly recommend you go with a solid stainless bracket (not the retractable) since I’ve yet to see a retractable that has withstood the test of time – especially on a whaler. Your main challenge will be connecting the kicker to the main. Most products require you to hang off the transom to connect them - personally I can’t see myself hanging off the back of the boat in 2-3 foot seas. Because the external bracket is going to be set back at least 8” from the main you will not be able to use the same system shown in my boats pictures.

Another problem you will face is keeping the motor stationary and in the up position while underway. Kickers are not designed to be in the up position while traveling so they tend to flop and bounce around all the time. The little piece of aluminum holding them in the up position is flimsy and is usually the second thing to go (after the bracket itself). We have overcome this problem by inserting a wedge and a separate tie-down to the transom to prevent the motor from bouncing and flopping around while traveling.

The next problem is fuel. My kicker has an independent fuel filter and pickup, which draws from the same tank as the main. If you do install the fuel line to the same tank, I would strongly recommend this system.

Size is probably the most important. Your boat has a minimum power rating of 135 HP. No secondary including a 115 will plane your boat! Every boat has a max displacement speed – once you’ve reached it any power up to the boats min requirement is a waste.

I’m assuming your boat is a newer 21 – if it’s the older 21 with the open transom setup for twins your min power requirement is 150 HP. In this case I would highly recommend my setup and can email you details and more detailed pictures.

posted 11-03-2001 08:41 AM ET (US)            

Just a passing note - OMC has a retractable bracket (or at least they used to - we bought this one somewhere between 5 and 10 years ago) that is really a tough, heavy-duty rig, with a compressed-gas cylinder to assist the lift from down to up. Has a very positive locking mechanism at both positions. I just took it off an old family boat we just sold and installed it on our new 25' unwhaler for a 9.9 4s Yamaha kicker for a 225 Yamaha. It has about 8" of travel which in this application, when I mounted the kicker and bracket as high as I dared to still get bite when the kicker is operating, leaves just the skeg and about the lower 1/3 of the kicker prop in the water when idling. So, the kicker prop spins just a little (in neutral) when slowly underway with virtually no impact on steering or anything else, but once up on plane there is mucho clearance, and we're able then to leave the kicker in the vertical position all the time. (For us, the same bracket but with 10" or 11" of travel would be perfect.)

I'll be installing a kicker on my Outrage 22 this winter and I haven't decided yet just which way I'm going to go; all I know at this point is that it appears one of my lifting eyes is right in the way of whatever I do...

kingfish

posted 11-15-2001 01:11 PM ET (US)            

Jim's correct in not bothering with anything above 8 - 10hp. Just gets heavier, with no speed increase.

When we towed the boat up to where we launched, it just sat on some carpet on the cockpit deck. When launched, I just attached it to the port side of the larger Merc. No steering / throttle / jack plate.

Never _needed_ to use it (Murphy's law.....), but I tried it out a few times.

The most important thing I did was to tie off the handle so it was pointing straight ahead, and crank in about 3/4 throttle. Then I could steer using the "dead" larger motor. Naturally, you would have to be back at the aux when entering a harbor, but this setup is kiss simple.

posted 11-15-2001 01:29 PM ET (US)            

I know from experience that a Montauk's hull speed is about 7 mph. This can be achieved with a 6 hp and perhaps even with a 4 hp. Certainly, a 9.9 is overkill on a Montauk. An 18-Outrage is nicely propelled by an 8 hp or a 9.9 (I've run both on mine).

Now having said all that, there are some exceptional circumstances that might warrant a larger auxiliary. If the auxiliary if for safety, then one could argue the need for a motor more powerful than necessary to achieve hull speed if it is imagined that the motor may be needed in, say, a storm where the wind is really blowing and it's not speed so much as control that is needed.

Another very odd scenario is what the original owner of my 1983 18-Outrage used his boat for. He had a Johnson 15 on the boat with a normally pitched prop (i.e. like if the 15 were on a skiff). The boat had dual binnacle mount controls and a steering tie bar for full control of both motors from the console.

He did a lot of fishing and used the kicker for trolling but he moved around a lot while fishing from one spot to the next. Instead of shutting down the kicker and tilting it up and then reversing this procedure each time, he would simply start the big motor, give the kicker full power and add just enough power to the big motor to get the boat up on plane. The tall pitch of the prop on the kicker prevented it from over revving but also allowed it to achieve full throttle rpm. Since this motor was used mostly for trolling, it kept the plugs from fouling and just gave the motor some exercise. He was also able to cover a lot of ground relatively quickly and easily.

After I bought the boat (and it was stolen and recovered without the motors) I repowered with a 9.9 hp. The 9.9 and the 15 were virtually identical motors and I didn't see the advantage that the original owner did. I also came to realize the dual binnacle mount controls were not as great as they seemed. In the course of ten years of ownership I used an 8 hp Yamaha for two seasons and this motor worked as well or better than either the 9.9 or the 15 for my purposes.

Kingfish is right about the OMC brackets. They are the best, but not cheap. As much as $400 but they can be bought used (just make sure the cylinder is still good). I bought one last summer for $100 and completely rebuilt it with all new stainless bolts, nylocknuts and bushings as well as a new varnished mahogany mounting block. Good as new.

posted 11-15-2001 01:46 PM ET (US)         

The only reason I put the 15 Big Foot on mine was the transom thickness - a 9.9 wouldn't fit without cuting the transom :(

Louie

posted 11-15-2001 02:04 PM ET (US)         

The aftermarket pony motor lift brackets are simply not recommended for severe duty when the going gets tough, which is exactly when you need one of these installations to perform. The aux has to be a rock-solid installation in all conditions, whether it's being run or just riding along tilted up.

A dual engine throttle control is a very nice way to connect one of these, however. One control for the main engine, and one control for the Aux. This can be accomplished with either 2 single controls side by side, or one dual control, which I think looks best.

posted 11-15-2001 02:19 PM ET (US)            

Kingfish should clamp and bolt his kicker right to the transom. A setback plate will move the weight of the kicker that much further aft and thus put that much more strain on the transom as will as make it harder to reach. Moving the eye bolt will only involve drilling one new hole in his boat while a jackplate will mean at least four new holes.

lhg is also correct about securing the kicker while in the up position. The lock which holds the motor up is not designed on any small outboard that I know of to withstand the pounding of even a moderately choppy run. I know, I promptly sheared the mechanism off the 6 hp on my Montauk the first time I ran it in chop.

The best solution, at least for the OMC motors, is to buy what they call (or used to call) a trailering bracket. It was designed to support the motor in the up position while trailering. It was simply a continuous stainless steel rod formed into a bracket that replaced the tilt pin on the motor. It formed a sort of squarish hoop that when flipped up allowed the tilt lock mechanism to grab hold of it in the up position and lock it in place, preventing any bouncing whatsoever.