Just my 2p worth on Tohatsu outboards etc

On the Corribie the outboard tiller sat in a U shaped piece of ply, held it straight, but easy to lift out and turn the engine for better manoeuvrability.

it was very reliable until the day I sold it, it took ages to get going, turned out to be water in the float chamber.

Perhaps flattening the sail to reduce lee helm?  would a strong down haul help for now?  Just looking at the video, would pulling the sail out tight along the battens help, they look a little creased and the cambered front does not cleanly go into the flat aft part.  

For a first trip out she sails extremely well, and looks magnificent, I am trying to think of a prettier boat, but none come to mind.

You must be overjoyed with her.

Anonymous wrote:

By the way, do you have any idea why the instructions tell you to put it in forward gear before tilting it up?

Yup, My 6hp twin has a lever that releases the the engine allowing it to be tilted. My 45 hp four on the other hand has no such lever and instead relies on forward push to keep the motor down in forward only locking it down in neutral and reverse gear. The motor has to be locked down in reverse because when it is pulling backwards without a lock it would just pull itself up out of the water, over heat and not go astern in the either.

Annie Hill wrote:

I made a 3.5 mile voyage today.  The lee helm is there and worse on starboard, I do believe.  However, I have hauled the boom aft and could haul in the LHP more effectively than last week.  I am pretty sure that simply reducing the balance will eliminate it, except possibly for very light airs.  I hope I don't have to get rid of too much - at present, gybes are delightfully 'soft'.  I am hoping it will go completely calm this evening and/or tomorrow morning to let me make the adjustments I want to the sail.

I am hesitant to try and teach my sister to suck eggs (I'm older than you, Annie, so I won't say grandmother).  I'll watch your decisions about the rig with interest.  I can understand you not wanting to lose those sweet, soft gybes by reducing the balance.  I wonder if you might consider making the tack adjustable?  Maybe you can haul it right back to the mast, as Blondie did in Pilmer, when going to windward, then ease it forward when off the wind.  I have found that a single mast lift can make this difficult once the sail is reefed, as the lift holds the sail bundle in against the mast.  I have considered double mast lifts, and a separate parrel to hold the boom into the mast, but on Arion did not need to do it.  Blue Moon has a little more weatherhelm than desired off the wind, so I might consider it if I ever get to do any serious sailing.  Of course, if you move the halyard fwd on the yard, that is permanent, but easing the tack fwd on a reach may still offer some benefit.  One of the many great advantages of junk rig is the ability to move the sail fwd and back.  Looking forward to hearing how you resolve this.

Arne, no long or extravagant pull needed on my Merc.

Anonymous wrote:

Tohatsu tricks

My Tohatsu (2015) has proven to work quite well, both starting and running well. I depend on it to back out of my berth and get out of the harbour. Still, it has its issues.

• ·         As mentioned earlier, it needs an unusually fast and long pull to start. I have solved it by fitting a 1:2 ‘fool’s purchase’, and this has been a success.
• ·         Those priming bulb pumps are not very good, and it takes some pumping to fill the carburettor after being out of use for a while. Before starting I have made a habit of priming the engine by pulling the starter chord slowly 5-10 times before pulling to start the engine, and that ensures start on first or second pull, even after weeks out of use. These ‘priming pulls’ are of course not needed if the engine has been run recently.
• ·         Clean fuel is essential, and keeping a new sparkplug on board can save the day.
• ·         The steering function is needed on my motor to help manoeuvring the boat, so the steering brake is set quite loose. Then a string with a loop on, set to the right length, is clipped onto the motor’s tiller when running in forward. This keeps the motor from swinging the boat to stb.
• ·         The reason why the gear must be set to forward to let you swing up the engine, is simply that the (front-mounted) gear lever is also connected to the swing-up lock. I think that is a clever detail. Without it, one would need a separate lock knob.

I use my engine frequently. It may well be started 30-40 times each season, plus 2-3 times each winter. Still, the run time is so short, and the speed set so low, that the annual fuel consumption is well less than 5 litres (2-3l, I guess). Since standard petrol doesn’t age well, and tends to clog up the carburettor and foul the spark plug, I have switched from ordinary 95octan petrol to ‘lawnmower petrol’, known as alkylate petrol. This, although over twice as expensive as standard petrol, has paid itself back by keeping the sparkplug happy much longer. Anyway, for my sort of use, reliability beats economy.

Arne

PS: The external tank may sit 20-40cm below the carburettor. This has not lead to any running problem, once the engine has been started. After a short warm-up, the engine has never let me down during the low-speed manoeuvring.

Interesting Arne.

After my experience with the Nissan, which is a Tohatsu rebranded for the American market - I decided for my new motor to try Mercury.  It was a little more expensive, but my online research had pretty good reviews of the Mercury brand.

Speaking to the Mercury dealer up at Gulf Harbour, north of Auckland, he advised me there is a misconception that Mercury are also just rebranded Tohatsu made by the same Tohatsu workers, with just a few bells and whistles added and a Mercury sticker slapped on.  Not so.  Tohatsu and Mercury do have a deal with each other that runs like this:  They share factories in Japan - the Tohatsu guys come in for three months, build their outboards, then the Mercury lads come in for the next three months, and build theirs, and so on and so forth.  But - while the parts are similar, including the engine base, they are not identical in all cases.  Often Tohatsu parts can be used for Mercury, but not always so.

Here is what Mercury were able to do for me, via the instructions from the dealer here in Auckland.  They had no extra long shaft 6hp here in NZ, but they did have a 5hp with the 25" inch shaft that they could get the factory in Japan to make on special order if I could wait a couple months. I also wanted a low pitch extra big prop, and a vertical rather than traditional horizontal pull start.  To me, there is an ergonomic advantage to have a vertical pull start - plus my stern-rail is well placed to brace me while I stand and pull up on the starter.

It is these little extras that Mercury were prepared to organise for me that convinced me to go with Mercury.  I am not decrying the Tohatsu Sail Pro, but I think Mercury version, albeit 5hp (which is still plenty for my Contessa) is just that little bit better quality all round.  

My Mercury has not missed a beat.  Sailing down from Russell to Auckland last year, I had to get back at a certain time to start work, and some windless mornings had me motoring down the coast for 3-4 hours at a time.  The Mercury started every time, usually first pull, and sipped the petrol.  As much as you can say an outboard 'purred' along wonderfully well - well, that was the case with my Merc.

I use '91 petrol here, and I try to use '91 with the least ethanol in it, so I try to avoid a Service Station branded 'Z' as some research I did a while back showed they use the most ethanol in regular '91.  Albeit, the quality of modern four strokes is so good these days, that it can handle up to 10% ethanol in the gasoline without clogging things up.

One thing I do is periodically spray the whole outboard, top to bottom, inside and out, with a sheep lanolin, branded as 'Lanox'.  It keeps the outboard parts looking brand spanking new, and importantly does not attract dirt and salt like some greasy concoctions do.  And I get the outboard serviced once a year.

This is my personal experience only, I am not saying I know anything more than anyone else when it comes to outboards - each to their own.

Cheers