Picture or it didnt happen, Gary.

A reliable engine for wriggling out of tight berths and pottering along in a calm so that you can get the hook down for the night, is a Good Thing.  An unreliable engine is downright dangerous.  While I know a large number of people with diesel auxiliaries who say they'd never have an outboard, I know very few people who have chosen to go the outboard route who have ever regretted.  My next boat (!) would have an inboard/outboard without a doubt, if it could be contrived, or a plain old outboard if it couldn't.  In the meantime, I have no complaints about my dear old Bukh 10, apart from the fact that it drips oil into my bilge.  A small price to pay considering the cost and inconvenience of fitting a new engine.

Arne and Gary, thanks for the feedback. My outboard bracket is a homemade design picked up  for $50, it's a solid bit of gear and folds upwards. The bumpkin on my transom will possibly make fitting the outboard interesting and if I really have to I can remove the bumpkin. I'd rather not though as it's a good spot for my windvane. I'm going to work out a few measurements today which should give me a better picture of how it's going to work.
The alternator now needs replacing on the diesel so I'm even more keen to replace it now.

Stavanger, Saturday

Hi Gary, that engine sounds like a good buy. That sum of money would hardly buy a new 2hp Honda. I can’t help feeling that fitting a diesel for a sailboat below 2 tons is overkill and your boat will like to get rid of all that weight. The outboards of today, and even those from the nineties are so much better than those from around 1970, when I started boating: First of all, today’s sealed and electronic ignition systems ensure a much better reliability without needing service, the propellers have a higher efficiency as well, and if a 4-stroke is used, then harbour manoeuvres can be made without ever worrying about killing the engine at a critical moment. The challenge is to get the engine bracket right: We want the engine to sit as close to the boat as possible, but there must still be space enough to tilt it up - I never sail with the engine in the water. My ideal bracket is one that goes up and down on rails so that one with a 2-3-part purchase can raise and lower the engine under way. This is very useful if the engine has been fitted to one side of the transom.

On my own new boat, Frøken Sørensen (6.5m, 740kg), I have found the 2.3hp Honda longshaft (14kg) to work remarkably well. I was thinking of buying a 6hp Suzuki 4-stroke (27kg) for her, but after having borrowed the Honda this summer, I am thinking of just buying a copy of it next spring, possibly then one without the centrifugal ("chainsaw") clutch. The clutch cut in and out at a bit too high rev for making a slow and steady harbour approach.

Good luck!

Arne

Thanks for passing the URL on, Gary. Wonder who that was? These 'old' guys (that's the female-inclusive version) are inspiring. We just helped Julian Mustoe celebrate his 80th on board Harrier - see his blog - which describes his 12 year circumnavigation, begun in a junk, before waving him off on his next adventure towards the Baltic where he plans to over-winter.