Out with the Tohatsu and in with the Mercury.....

[...3TacksontheWater]

Well, I bought Waffle House in late June of 2022 and launched her on August 30th 2024. Her time on the hard was well spent with both major and minor upgrades. Since she was purchased without an engine, I opted for a 6HP 25" shaft Tohatsu. With everything I have read, I was excited for the engine weight savings though I knew that there would be a learning curve with the shift mechanism.

On my previous C-22 I had installed a 9.9 electric start Mercury Saildrive with the F-N-R shift function integrated in the tiller. While I'm still missing my pedestal steering, what I miss most of all is the ability to back the boat down while docking without needing to take my eye off of the target to find the engine mounted shift bracket. I don't know what Tohatsu was thinking when deciding that this is not a must have feature for a sailboat. As much as I would have liked to love the shifting mechanics, I found myself not enjoying coming back to the dock.

So, between my Tohatsu's persnickety starting manners and my needing to turn around while docking to shift into reverse (since I mostly solo sail), I decided to go with what I know will be an easier and safer way to come into the slip as opposed to hoping that everything goes just right while single handed. Do I need the extra power? Heck no, the 6HP is a perfect size for a C-22. Having said that, I am looking forward to being able to shift into reverse while keeping my speed under control and be able to (theoretically) come to a dead stop to pickup my docking line and begin to tie off.

George

 

[ShawnL]

I have a 9.9 2-stroke mercury. Yes, it's heavy. But it runs well, came with the boat, and we like that all the controls are on the tiller arm. Sometimes we rotate the motor to get out of the mooring field, sometimes we don't need to turn that sharp. It all depends on the wind. We've been running it for 5 seasons and it's been great. I know it's too heavy, and too much of a motor, probably uses too much fuel, etc. but it's what we have and it honestly works well. When we start it, I know it will get us home. Would a smaller, electric start be better? Probably. But as I said, it starts, it moves the boat, and we don't really notice the extra weight on the transom -- most times we just raise the mount and leave whatever of the prop that's not out of the water where it is -- it's a pain to tilt. Do we loose speed, sure. Do we care when day sailing, no.

 

[...3TacksontheWater]

I have a 9.9 2-stroke mercury. Yes, it's heavy. But it runs well, came with the boat, and we like that all the controls are on the tiller arm. Sometimes we rotate the motor to get out of the mooring field, sometimes we don't need to turn that sharp. It all depends on the wind. We've been running it for 5 seasons and it's been great. I know it's too heavy, and too much of a motor, probably uses too much fuel, etc. but it's what we have and it honestly works well. When we start it, I know it will get us home. Would a smaller, electric start be better? Probably. But as I said, it starts, it moves the boat, and we don't really notice the extra weight on the transom -- most times we just raise the mount and leave whatever of the prop that's not out of the water where it is -- it's a pain to tilt. Do we loose speed, sure. Do we care when day sailing, no.

I absolutely agree. Our old 2 stroke Mercs were/are amazing engines for our needs. I am looking forward to mounting the new 9.9 four stroke. She will be a bit heavier than what is available now but, the weight won't be far off of the older offerings. We sure do spend a lot of time contemplating and planning our short trips out of the dock to open water. lol.....

 

[...3TacksontheWater]

I must be loosing my mind. We all know where the battery sat and, AFIK, still sits for many of us with the early C-22's with a swing keel. It sat/sits behind the fuse panel just to port of the swing keel volcano. When I mounted my Mercury 9.9 Saildrive on my first C-22, everything worked as intended right out of the box. There was no need to fiddle with battery cable length. Fast forward to today. My new to me Mercury comes equipped with seven (7) foot battery cables. What good is a seven foot long battery cable on a sailboat?

Keep in mind, that there are no more "Saildrive" designations offered by the manufactures. It's apparently a "one size fits all" marketing scheme. Having said that, can the manufactures offer buyers the option to spend more $ when ordering an outboard to get battery cables that fit our needs? I'm still very excited about the engine and if things work as planned, I will have the new battery cables built up installed on the engine and (hopefully) the new Kicker will be installed next weekend.

Waffle House's current "House Battery" is a Batteries Plus LifePo4 60 amp hour battery and for the kicker, I'm adding a Duracell 30AH battery with 400 CCA to handle the engine starting. Everything I can find on LifePo4 indicates that the current technology is not ready for the demands of engine starting. So, by installing the Duracell AGM battery I save some weight and also avoid the complexity of mixing battery technology on one circuit. For now, I will manually switch my Solar Panel between batteries. Past experience indicates that the starting battery will only be need to be charged occasionally so I will quite probably install a minimal sized solar panel in the future to keep up with the starter battery.

That's it for now. I'm waiting for the new wiring to arrive so I can fabricate and install the new cables and hopefully, next weekend install the new kicker and go out for a two hour initial engine break in ride. lol

George