Kicker Motors

I have a bridge I plan on getting under with the H16. The bridge has about 15' clearance. My Hobie lives on a dock about 1 mile from the bridge - trailering around would eat up most of a sailing day. I've been trying to come up with a reasonable way to install a kicker motor. With that, I could motor out beyond the bridge & rig on a sandy beach. I'm motivated by a huge amount of sailing water beyond this bridge. The total range needed would be about 3 miles round trip.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a kicker with a 3 mile range? Batteries or Gas.. I'd really appreciate any thoughts.

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Anderson, SC
1987 Hobie 16
Learning to sail.

Not sure what a Kicker motor is but I've see several posts here about something called a Cheetah motor mount. Try searching the forum.

Common name for a small outboard motor used as a second mode of propulsion. You sometimes see a large motor boat with a small outboard on the side, the small outboard can be used as a trolling motor or backup. You also see them behind monoslugs either to motor in a harbour or when the wind dies.



Cheetah Mount, sells mounts for TVs.

The Cheata mount is used to put a kicker motor aka outboard motor. I'm guessing "cheata" is slang for cheater because you're using a motor instead of sails.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

I have an older Mini-Kota trolling motor that clamps easily onto the upper rudder casting (while the rudders are up) and should move my H14s. It runs for a couple hours from a 24amp/hr lead gel battery which weighs less than 20 pounds.
For eco-friendliness I have a small solar panel to recharge the batteries.
Untested so far but that is the plan...

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Raise your sail one foot, and you get ten feet of wind.
起你的一只帆，和你10英尺的。 -- Chinese Proverb
William D. Latinette @ Latrobe, PA, USA w. H14 Turbo X 2... [email protected]

Annacat:
I have a 2hp gas 4 stroke gas auxillary motor mounted on my Tandem Island that I use for emergencies (loss of wind, breakdown, etc), I have had it about a year now and it works prety well, it propels my TI at around 5mph, and I can go about 40 miles on a gallon of fuel (I always carry at least a gallon). I saw the Cheata motor mount on their web site and it look like the motor I have would fit and work. You can see pics of my motor on this forum thread (The Ultimate Tandem Island (Hydrofoils, Spinaker, jib,etc) viewtopic.php?f=69&t=33720. I bought the motor from Florida Outboard Motors and Engines ( http://www.ioutboardmotors.com/20hpoutboard4cycle.html), it cost $525 and does the job. When you get the motor it would be a good idea to clear coat the motor housings and all the parts before putting in salt water. I didn't do that and alot of the screws and bolts rusted pretty quickly, even though I rinsed the motor off after each use. My motor mount was home made so it only cost $15 or so, but on a cat you will need something better. The motor only weighs 20 lbs so, and tilts up and down it shouldn't affect your performance like a 15-20 lb electric motor and 1 or 2 60 lb batteries would, plus where in the world would you put the batteries and cables on an H16 or H18, and what do you do to get back in with dead batteries (paddle ??). What I do is start the motor and lock the throttle and steering, then use the regular rudder to steer. The TI is much larger than a cat so you will likely do a little faster than my TI, you won't be pulling any skiers, but it will get you past your bridge. With the motor you can sail into the late afternoon without fear of getting stuck out in the the dead sunset wind (at least around here the wind always dies in late afternoon and you have to paddle back in (which sucks)). Hope this helps. Bob

Annacat, here is another thread on this same topic.

http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=55518

I think I want to ice this kicker idea until I try something obsurd:

It has occured to me that the jib sail would clear the bridge. I'm thinking about making a jury rig PVC mast & boom designed to work the jib as a main. I'll set up shrouds & a forestay using simple lines & carabiner clips. The boom will extend back & clip onto the Harken 6:1 system. When done, I'll slide the boom & lines inside the PVC mast & store them under the trampoline.

Does anyone see this working?

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Anderson, SC
1987 Hobie 16
Learning to sail.

Not sure, but if it works, you don't need a boom.

You could also convert the 16 to a river boat with a big paddle wheel between the 2 hulls with a set of pedals.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

Annacat:
Here is another radical idea for you, it would be fairly easy to design a swing up mount for a mirage pedal drive on your H16. I'm sure once you have a design for a swing up mount (similar to the cheeta mounts, but probably mounted in the front vs the back of the boat ( so you don't have to sit backwards, and some fix for steering using the standard rudder setup (so you can steer while sitting near the bow while pedaling)), alternately, you could mount it in the back of the boat and sit in a swing just above the water at the stern (just a thought). that guy at Cheeta would be more than happy to start making and selling them I'm sure (once designed of course). The mirage drive is really the answer here, it is what sets the AI and TI apart from all other boats out there. The mirage drive actually costs less than any motor out there (about $500 bucks). On my TI I can pedal continously for 8-10 hours if needed (have done it many times), and the mirage system is more efficient and probably faster than any 2-3 hp motor out there (plus it's 100% eco friendly, which is important to me). Normal (easy) pedaling I can get the TI to 2-3 mph, and if you pedal hard you can get up to 6-8 mph (but only for a short time before your legs turn to rubber (don't do that)). I'm sure an H16 will be much faster than the TI since the TI is so much larger. Another nice feature is the Mirage unit only weighs 6 or 7 lbs. You could easily pedal the 3 miles you need to go (probably faster than you would with an electric or gas trolling motor). Unfortunately the fuel cost for the mirage drive is about 4 times that of gasoline (beer is expensive), I figure 2 beers per hour when pedaling long distance. I don't have access to an H16 (or its designs), so this is just a thought at this time. But if I had an H16 or H18 I would have designed and built a mirage drive mount a long time ago and would be using it now.
Actually thinking about it more, there really would be no need to retract the mirage drive when not using it, most of us just leave out mirage drives in place while sailing (pedals pointed down), they don't seem to drag the boat speed down enough to worry about, and on an H16 it would be up in the air most of the time when your hauling anyway.
Bob

Bob.. You are stealing kz’s idea of the paddle wheel. I bet that thing would fly with a riverboat paddle wheel! I was out there sailing again this evening & looking at the bridge (it is still there). My jib rig idea started looking less appealing amidst the white caps. I think the mirage drive would propel the H16 (no doubts) – if it could be configured.

For now.. I'm just going to keep watching this:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGAzt-8minI[/youtube]

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Anderson, SC
1987 Hobie 16
Learning to sail.

If you could rig up a telescopic mast, like those powered car antennas.

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

now your thinking "out-of-the-bridge!"

Here is the cheata motor mount company's website. Looks like a brochure from 1954.

http://www.cheatabrackets.com/

Annacat, I have a similar problem with my 18. My bridge is only a 100yds from the dock so I paddle the boat there with the mast down and set it up on the other side.

I am just up the street from you in Greenville and I have the cross-bar side of the cheata mount, I have seen the other half (just a tube with a plate on the end) for sale here as well. PM me if that is something that interests you.

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2010 AHPC C2 #218