Advice re boat

kempy · September 19, 2007, 11:12:52 CET

thats why i come to this site so often its very helpful and the people here are always willing to help. Thanks again guys

shanook · September 19, 2007, 18:37:15 CET

in my humble opinion if you want to buy a boat: first spend time going round and checking new boats and their prices. Get as much information as possible especially Width of boat (makes a differrence, shetland are 18' but quite narrow in beam, so makes them fast but roll about in stationary). Once u have compiled all info check prices of Outbaords. Nowadays E tech by evenrude are very economical and a 75hp will be just right for a 15' and the occasional 4 people. Once you have all this info then look for 2nd hand boats. I calculate a new 15' with new 75hp would cost in the region of Lm7000.
Finally dont rush to buy something you are not 1000% happy with.

Regarding the licence please go apply today as when we will be pressed by EU the exams will get harder and harder just like the car driving licence. Also when the time comes whoever has a motored boat will have to have a licence.

happy shopping

shanook · September 19, 2007, 18:46:25 CET

15' Kaptan with 60 hp

shanook · September 19, 2007, 18:48:36 CET

same 15'Kaptan

busumark · September 19, 2007, 21:03:03 CET

that kaptan has an 85hp motor not 60hp. i know people who have like that kaptan with 115hp 4-stroke. very good boat for 15ft. they use it for everything deepsea fishing, long lines for swordfish and even catching lampuki with net. olso good for pleisure.

skip · September 20, 2007, 07:41:15 CET

With outboards you can go bigger so long as their overall weight doesnt exceed specs. It's especially imp in Malta because of a few factors:

1) Not all outboards produce their rated hp, they merely have to be within 10% to comply
2) In hot and humid countries you can lose 10-20% of rated horsepower, in winter you will always notice much better power due to relative air density
3) Our crappy low octane fuel doesnt do any wonders for power.

redbus9 · September 27, 2007, 18:36:05 CET

regarding the licence,its correct that you need one for 100HP or over,but when I did the course in March of this year,there were many on the course who had much smaller engines e.g. 40HP and they were doing the course because they could,nt get insurance for the boat.The insurance companies were insisting they had a licence to prove that they were capable of handling a boat safely,and they had knowledge of bouys and navigation lights etc.

clutch_kick · June 28, 2008, 10:32:26 CET

Quote from: skip on September 20, 2007, 07:41:15 CET
3) Our crappy low octane fuel doesnt do any wonders for power.

Sorry for reviving this old thread, but i might add some info re the quote. My other hobby is car engine tuning, so i had bothered enemalta to bits to give me exact specs of the average octane ( in RON) of our unleaded fuel supply.

The number quoted was 96 octane, which considering everything else, is quite good. To get something better you might need to buy Optimax, which is made by BP, 98 octane, but that doesn't come to malta. You might consider buying your fuel from Japan hehehe ... premium is 101 octane.

The best option though is ... run 96 octane in winter and in summer mix in some octane booster, I have found one Bardhal Octane booster to be the best, followed by ProBoost.

Just a quick point. Adjusting octane will only really work on engines that are controlled with an electronic control unit. However, it will be very beneficial in the hotter months, to avoid detonation, on ALL engines ... except diesel ofcourse, which are another case alltogether.

HTH ... I'm still very new to marine engines and propulsion, but the basics are the same.

P.S. ... keep the fuel cool and out of the sun.

skip · June 29, 2008, 15:46:28 CET

Do you believe them though? That we actually get 96RON here in Malta. Last I heard it was more like 89RON or less depending how long it sits in the petrol station tanks for as octane decreases over time.

Surprised they are saying 96RON, but could be.

spiru · June 29, 2008, 23:41:54 CET

PLEASE CAN SOME BODY TELL ME IF I AM DOING ANY HARM FOR MY MARINER 50 HP 2 STROKE MOTOR? I TROLL AT 4KNTS FOR HOURS AND SOMETIMES EVEN 1.5KNOTS WITH LIVE BAIT.IS IT GOOD TO MAKE IT WORK WITH SUCH SLOW SPEED?

sirena · June 30, 2008, 13:25:21 CET

HI KING , if you invest in an aux motor it will be better in my opinion , you're leaving the motor idling for hours , heq pretty good question? , regarding consuption obviously you cousume less but i don't like to run a motor for a long period of time both in very slow speed or full trottle.

spiru · June 30, 2008, 17:33:43 CET

thanks sirena for your reply.what power in HP would you suggest for the aux will be the best?imy boat is 15' and i need to troll max 4.5knots.the aux motor should be able to move the boat in this speed without keeping in full trottle a assume.but i do not need it that big because i will need to remove it when not going fishing

fishfinder · June 30, 2008, 19:32:46 CET

Hello Spiru,

In my opinion the auxiliary motor should be between 8HP and 9.9HP so that you can troll with 1/2 gass and leave the aux engine running comfortable without any stress.

bear in mind that an aux engine is needed mostly to get you back in port when your main engine is down and if the sea gets rough you will never return to port with a smaller engine.

one other thing that you should consider is the weight of this aux. 2 stroke although noisy and smelly are much lighter than 4 stroke engines which are 45-50kgs.

the best and lighter aux you may have is the 9.8hp tohatsu which weighs less than 20kgs and it's a 2 stroke engine. I don't know if mecca still gets these models but you will surely find second hands.

spiru · June 30, 2008, 20:02:08 CET

thanks fish,and do you think i am making any damage to my 50hp motor by trolling?

skip · June 30, 2008, 21:36:08 CET

Don't think Mecca still have them. I bought a 9.8hp 4 stroke Tohatsu and it pushes my 18.5 foot 1150kgs boat (all up weight, fuel, engines, people) at around 4.5-4.9 knots at half throttle. After that the engine seems to do very little between half and full throttle maybe getting it to 5.4 knots but I feel stressing things.

Might consider a 4 blade high thrust prop for the aux. Today I noticed the Tohatsu 90TLDI DID NOT appear to like running for extended periods of time at low rpm's, 1700-2000rpms in fact it occasionally seemed to splutter a little almost like a tiny fuel blockage.

Also tried running both engines together, aux at 1/2 throttle and main at 1400rpms to get around 5.5knots but seems a mighty waste of fuel. One things I am noticing is that the 9.8hp seems to be using ALOT of fuel to push that weight through the water. 12 litres isn't lasting very long at all, maybe 3-4 hour which isn't good in my opinion. The main according to my flow meter uses around 5 litres per hour at 5.7 knots, and 15 litres per hour at cruise doing 20-21knots @ 4000rpm

I too wonder if I am doing some damage!