Any Boat Experts?

[Tom D]

I bought an old boat at auction the other day, she's probably older than me but seems in reasonably good nick and had a trailer and motor. The boat is a 1970's model and so by the looks of it is the engine, a 50hp 2 stroke yamaha. Although the boat appears solid and doesn't have any major damage or repairs I do wonder about taking her out to sea, especially if I take the family. It has a Loch Lomond Sticker on it so I guess she has spent most of her time in fresh water.

 

She has a low transom and so needs a short shaft engine, which are apparently hard to find in decent power ratings. This means I would probably need to stick with the old yamaha. My question is would you:

 

Extend the transom to take a long shaft engine?

Run the yamaha if it seems ok?

Or buy a small second motor to use as a spare?

 

The boat is a shetland 535 so anyone who knows anything about them please feel free to give any tips or advice...

 

Cheers

 

Tom

[felixthelogchopper]

I can't tell you masses Tom but Shetlands are great boats. If the engine with it is sound, I'd stick with it and buy a smaller one as a back-up. I believe that if you plan to use the engine in salt water, it needs to be 'marinised' to prevent corrosion damage. Nice buy!

[gensetsteve]

Those yamaha engines were superb I would say its late 80's if it runs well it will be ok. dont run it without getting the pump wet with muffs. I would take the leg off and replace the impeller before running ( yearly job )

[Mick Stockbridge]

50hp is ample for that Tom, probably get 25knots out of it. It's already marinised Al, you'll have to flush it through with fresh after using it in the sea. Even if it does run nice you'll still need an auxiliary motor as well as flares, handheld VHF radio and gallons of fuel cos it'll drink it like a fish being a two stroke.

 

Personally I'd stick to fresh water with that.

[gensetsteve]

I had a 60 hp suzuki on a 15 ft speed boad and we used to get a good afternoon

out of 40 litres of fuel but on full throttle it would burn 20 litres an hour. the jap engines were always better on fuel than the yank ones

[felixthelogchopper]

50hp is ample for that Tom, probably get 25knots out of it. It's already marinised Al, you'll have to flush it through with fresh after using it in the sea. Even if it does run nice you'll still need an auxiliary motor as well as flares, handheld VHF radio and gallons of fuel cos it'll drink it like a fish being a two stroke.

 

Personally I'd stick to fresh water with that.

 

All up to Tom's for a bit of pike fishing then.

[Tom D]

I think she'd be ok in the sea on a calm day, the 535 was an estuary boat, meant for up to 3 mile off shore apparently. Wouldn't fancy it in a big swell though...

[doobin]

I had the same boat and a 40HP Mariner barely made it move in the sea, plus it drank petrol like you wouldn't believe.

 

In a strong current you struggle to make headway, then it runs out of fuel and whilst you scramble for the cans it drifts back twice as far as you've come

[Inoff the Red]

If you are planning on using a boat at sea I'd suggest doing a RYA day skipper theory course which would teach the basics of navigation, collision regs, weather, tides and all sorts of other useful stuff that will help you to avoid appearing on the RNLI web site as a rescue.

 

If you have no experience of skippering a boat then I'd also suggest doing a practical boat handling course as well.

[gensetsteve]

If you are planning on using a boat at sea I'd suggest doing a RYA day skipper theory course which would teach the basics of navigation, collision regs, weather, tides and all sorts of other useful stuff that will help you to avoid appearing on the RNLI web site as a rescue.

 

If you have no experience of skippering a boat then I'd also suggest doing a practical boat handling course as well.

 

very good advice I did both after parking on a sandbank at Mudeford Harbour. Get the navigation maps for your area and have a good read u may be surprised at the amount of hazards especially at low tide.