I thought people might be interested in my experience of moving to a 5hp propane outboard.

Aries came with a 9.8 two stroke Tohatsu complete with remote starter and throttle. While intitally excited by the thought of almost ten horses of power my first use dampened my enthusiasm. It was like I'd strapped a moped into the cockpit. On idle the fumes literally turned the air blue, and the remote mounted next to the outboard added nothing but extra setup time and clutter.

So, what, I thought, is out there that will not chock me to death,, be less polluting and still do the job. While not completely green Propane is the best I could find.

I went for the Tohatsu, cheaper than the Honda, charging circuit included, 5hp saildrive gives as much trust as a 6 hour 4 stroke.

I won't bore you with the long story, safe to say I have had it for a month and have had several attempted trips cancelled; the first because the hose supplied leaked. Filling the boat with propane not a good idea. Second it wouldn't start, turned out the supplier had overfilled it with oil. hahaaa I thought a safety feature, no spark from spark plug means no risk of explosion from gas leaking from the hose. Third hose and oil fixed.... wouldn't start. Took it back. Supplier very apologetic, after consulting manufacturer it turns out , quote " oh yeah they are a bit tricky to start from cold".

This weekend I intend to try again. Canister of carburettor solvent at the ready.

I will let you know how I get on.

It is very pretty... it's white.

Steve (21:71)

So .....it works......sort of.

We launched at Pwllheli. We tried a few pulls but decided to try the carburettor cleaner to fire it up and she started and stayed ticking over.

We picked up the family (crew) in the harbour and headed for Abersoch. A bit choppy but the engine didn't let us down. When warm it starts as per any other outboard. It's just that initial start up. So I haven't taken it back yet. I'm just hoping it 'beds in'. Three launches now and three starts but all with accelerant for the first fire up. Not ideal but I still like the lack of fumes and economy seems remarkable, but then I am a novice.

Steve

(21:71 Aries)

Hello Steve, good to hear you're trying to be green! I had an old car that used to need an accelerant (aerosol) fired up the carburettor on cold days, but it caused it to start at quite high revs, which worried me that the oil wouldn't get circulated quickly enough. My solution was to turn it over with no throttle (or choke) a couple of times, then apply the QuikStart, as it was called. Perhaps you do this already though?

Regards, John

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Thanks John,

I took your advice and so far so good.

I haven't been out enough this season but I'm hoping the outboard will bed in and not need the accelerant in future.

Regards Steve