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Outboard motor for a Spindrift 11' non nesting


Captain Tim

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If you had a choice between a Suzuki 2.5 HP DF2.5L4 Outboard Motor (long shaft 20") or a HONDA 2.3 HP BF2.3DHLCH Outboard (long shaft 20") which would you choose?  The transom height is 17" and I didn't want to cut it down because I thought it could weaken the transom.   Also I thought the prop would come out of the water when I go forward to set the sail. Both would be new. If you think a short shaft would work feel free to tell me.

Thanks, Tim  

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  • 4 weeks later...

We use a short shaft (Mercury 3.5hp 2 stroke). No real problems with the prop coming out of the water or cavitating.

Surely you wouldn't be worried about the prop coming out of the water when you go forward to set sail, because you'd have already removed the motor in order to fit the rudder?

 

Just to slightly hijack the thread, I'm tempted to try a 5hp on my S11N. 19kg, so it's a bit more weight, but I reckon when we're carrying a decent load the extra power might be useful. Or it might just make the bow point at the sky...

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Aphers, Good point about moving the motor before putting the sail up.

It sounds like you use your S11N as a tender as much if not more than a sailing dinghy. So do you leave the motor on the mother ship when sailing?

We can't buy 2 strokes here in the states anymore.

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6 minutes ago, Captain Tim said:

Aphers, Good point about moving the motor before putting the sail up.

It sounds like you use your S11N as a tender as much if not more than a sailing dinghy. So do you leave the motor on the mother ship when sailing?

We can't buy 2 strokes here in the states anymore.

Yes it's my daily driver- we live on our yacht at anchor. It's a great load carrier, much more internal space than an equivalent sized RIB, and an absolute joy to row. We used just 10l of petrol in our first year as liveaboards!

 

For sailing, we strip everything out of the dinghy: anchor, fuel can, outboard, fenders, etc. The oars stay, obviously.

 

We haven't really found sailing the dinghy to be a very practical way of getting about, but it's a lot of fun.

 

I'm hoping to upgrade the mast to a lighter one, which might let me keep it rigged whilst afloat. That would make trips to the beach etc much less stressful.

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16 minutes ago, Captain Tim said:

Aphers, Sounds like you are using your S11n just like I plan to use my S11s.

I have davits on my boat so no need of nesting quality.

What length oars do you use? Do you have just one rowing station?

Ours lives in davits most of the time, but it's good to be able to put it on deck as well. We just crossed the Atlantic with it on deck.

From memory the oars are about 7ft. A little on the line side but the boat absolutely flies if you put in a bit of effort!

Just one rowing station. We've tried sitting side by side with an oar each but it tends to lead to arguments 😂

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Hirilonde, I think the bean on your Lapwing is 5' 6 1/2" and mine is 4' 7" so do you think 8' for me would be about right?

Or your Spindrift 9' is 4'1" on the beam, 6" less than mine so I should go with 7'6"?

 

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  • 10 months later...

Hi, I'm thinking of building a spindrift 11 to serve as tender for my sailboat. I have some questions regarding the spindrift. 1) can we add hard points for attaching ropes to connect to davits? 2) doest it plane when motoring? 3) can it carry 4 people while motoring? I intend to use this mainly as a tender from ship to shore and occasionally to go fishing and have fun sailing with my grand kids

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Welcome aboard Dylan Tantuico, I think this link might be helpful  Davit attachment points?  

I don't think the Spindrift was intended to be a planning hull. It sails well and rows well and a 2 1/2 hp will push it.

In one discussion Aphers said he had 9 people on board.

The spindrift is a lot of fun to build

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On 1/3/2024 at 10:44 PM, Dylan Tantuico said:

Hi, I'm thinking of building a spindrift 11 to serve as tender for my sailboat. I have some questions regarding the spindrift. 1) can we add hard points for attaching ropes to connect to davits? 2) doest it plane when motoring? 3) can it carry 4 people while motoring? I intend to use this mainly as a tender from ship to shore and occasionally to go fishing and have fun sailing with my grand kids

Hi Dylan

We've been using our S11N as our tender for nearly two and a half years now, full time. Absolutely love it. I'm very glad that I built the sailing version, and now that I've sorted out my rig and got a bit more confident, I almost always sail rather than rowing or motoring. Definitely a conversion starter at the dinghy dock.

 

In answer to your questions:

1- I've added three hard points for lifting. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

2- the fastest I've gone is around 6.5kt, with a 3.5hp outboard and just me onboard. Under sail, I'm not sure. Once I hit about 5kt it's time to put my phone away somewhere safe. But in either case, no it's not really a planing boat. The design has quite a bit of rocker which makes it excellent to row but harder to get on the plane. I would be nervous about fitting a bigger and heavier outboard. I've given it a lot of thought and decided to stick with the little 12kg two stroke.

3- four people under motor is an absolute doddle. We've often carried six, and our record is nine. The other day we had four adults and two kids under sail, all carrying snorkel gear and packed lunches.

 

FYI I recently had a little row around in a 10ft Spindrift and I was surprised how much smaller it felt. Still a good and stable boat, but not a load carrier like the 11.

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