Reviews of newer 2.5 outboards for Hobie I

Very cool, thanks for going into such detail!

I wish my trailer had a mount for the outboard..

When we did a big TI car top trip with a Subaru Forester, I had the outboard on the "stand" in the picture below which worked fine for storing in the back of the car and I still use this when I do long tow trips. The outboard is on the same stand now but its standing / leaned up against a wall.

Cool! I love your boat mount Walt, very compact.

Can anyone comment on why Defender marine does not sell Suzuki's? Is it because they normally come bundled with dinghies or are difficult to ship?

Thanks!

My trailer guy made this awesome outboard mount. The motor lives on it all the time it is not on the TI

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

FWIW, I leave my Honda 2.3 on our TI when doing south Fl trips. A couple of hours on the highway seems to be just fine. I'll drain the tank and run the motor dry before putting it back into its shipping box for longer trips. I like those trailer mounts, however. My old van will probably give up the ghost in the next year or two and I'll move to a smaller vehicle. Trailer mounting solutions will become more important.

The Honda's air cooled feature has come in handy for me here on our Everglades adventures. I developed an unfortunate affinity for mud flats and related shallow water features this past year. The prop's a bit chewed but the motor workings escaped.

I do remove the motor along with all of our other gear before pulling the boat up the beach.

My Hondas don't sit very deep in the water. So I typically leave them down when I beach, then tilt them up once I'm on the beach and pull the boat up a couple feet further. When pulling out I typically back the boat up a bit so the props are clear then start the engines and leave them idle till I'm ready to go. Once I turn the boat around and climb aboard I give them a little throttle (enough to engage the clutches). Then head out, once I'm clear I put the sails up and powersail the rest of the day with the throttles locked. At the end of the day I come close to the launch and clean the boat up (ie.. furl all the sails, remove the mirage drives and release the rudder lock down line and hold it).
I typically beach with the motors running (sometimes just one motor if I'm coming in too fast). I then shut the gas off tilt the motors up then pull the boat on the trailer, ( with the winch usually), then pull the boat to a level area and put the ama's in and strap the boat down. Some times I drop the masts at shore then lay them in the boat (I never dis-connect any rigging, that stays connected always, the masts are just furled and laid down in the boat). Once I get home I rinse the boat and motors off in the drive, (with the car already in the garage). I then disconnect the boat and pull that in the garage (typically takes about 2-5 minute). Once in the garage I release all the bungys, open the hatches, and tilt the motors down (the motors are never removed from the boat). Actually nothing is removed from the boat, all the seats, mirage drives, pfd's, etc are just laid in the boat to dry (we have a ceiling fan in the garage). Once in a while if we need more room in the garage I'll remove the AMA's and throw them on top of the boat to conserve space. This is by far the most hassle free boat I have ever owned and faster and easier to setup and launch vs anything else we have ever owned. Simple and fast to launch and put away, and we haven't spent much of anything on maint in the last 3yrs, we just use the thing and thats it, the only cost is gas every week, I can't remember the last time I used more than a half gallon of gas, (about a bucks worth of gas typically per outing). I honestly can't remember the last time I had to stop and re-fuel while out on the water (I carry about 200 miles of fuel on board (2.5 gallons) just in case).
That's all when we are home at our main house in Sarasota, it's a whole nother story when we have to car top the TI, which is a lot of heavy lifting and rigging (typically a good hr or two to get the boat ready). Unfortunately our only choice when we have the camper in tow is to car top ( the camper uses the trailer hitch). Actually we have a good 200k road miles with the camper in tow and our Hobie on the roof. We are at Glacier national park this week on an 8000 mile 3month adventure (visiting all the national parks). Unfortunately I had to leave the boat in storage in the midwest because of all the zebra snail restrictions out west, we will pick it up on the way back, boy am I kicking myself for that one. There are more boat inspection stations out here along all the highways than truck weigh stations (seems like about every hundred miles or so where you have to pull off and get any boat inspected and certified (even kayaks). I was told it's about $50 bucks a pop to get your boat cleaned and certified, for us that would be 50x $50 bucks on this trip alone, storage was only $200 bucks for a couple months.
Oh well.
FE

You know you've 'arrived' when you have a "trailer guy"...!!

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

One thing I really like about the TI is that the Zebra inspections are easy and fast. I go though inspections all the time and often the inspector just says its a plastic kayak and they didnt even need to inspect it. If you simply have everything dry, even when they look inside.. no problem. I dont know how long the zebra larvae (or eggs or whatever) live when things are dry but if you are worried about transporting them, a wipe down with clorox kills everything.

Inspections every one hundred miles???? What state are you in or did you "just hear" that? Not true for any of the western states that I visit. You may have a boat inspection at a state line but that is all I have ever seen. In Colorado you will get an inspection at just about any lake - but that is only if you are launching at that lake. And at a lot of lakes, if you car top, they dont inspect at all.

Your probably right, I didn't do any research myself, my family did all the research, and painted a pretty convincing story so I decided to put the boat in storage. Now everytime we drive past an inspection station, or a posted sign they all say 'see we told you so' (in unison), so The deck was stacked against me from the start I suspect.
However I have seen enough roadside Inspection stations with long lines of boats, that I'm convinced it would have been a really bad move to bring the boat in all the national parks, I think My family made the decision for me.
We are at glacier this week and both mcdonald and mary lakes are closed to any boats because of nesting eagles, ( not a single boat on either lake)
Oh well
FE