Yes the honda at wot (wide open throttle) is pretty loud, as I'm sure all outboards are. This is precisely why I have mine re-propped and a second engine installed. I never have a need to go any faster than 8-10 mph cruise speed, anything above that and the boat becomes an exhausting handful to operate (not fun at all). With the engine throttles locked at just above idle (high enough to engage the clutches). The engines with their underwater exhaust are very quiet, you can easily talk over them (about the same noise as a Torqeedo (pwm diodes typically squeal)), all my videos are with the engines running, you can hear the engines, (I've posted 30-40 videos on here, (all really boring)). The motors are putting out somewhere around 1/2 to 3/4 hp ea. Of course my TI is widened (about 13ft wide) so both the AMA's are always completely out of the water, and I have a planing hull mod installed and the hull is coated with a zero contact angle coating ( to reduce water drag), and many of the openings in the hull (like the rear mirage slot) are covered to make the boat glide in the water efficiently. For a while I had 8-10 silicone fuel lines of various lengths stuffed into the exhaust output (silencers), which makes the engine almost totally silent, however this can become rather dangerous if you ever exceed 1/4 throttle. I didn't trust myself so I removed the silencers. The reason being if I ever get in dire trouble while out offshore, (what I call get the heck out of dodge mode). I maintain the ability to open the throttles to WOT and make a beeline back to shore, ( only ever used in dire emergencies). I can steer with the motors in the event of rudder failure (kinda important). Keep in mind my TI is heavily modified with massive sailsets/wings ( up to 260 sq ft sail area) and I've never ran the motors without the sails deployed and generating equal or greater horsepower to the engines, (the sails are setup like power amplifiers, similar to the way an air conditioner operates), the sails are never the primary source of energy. I alwas start the engines up when I pull away from shore, as soon as I clear harbor I open the sails, then sail to the best of my ability all day, then shut them off when I come in. If I ever wanted to sail the old fashion way (which is never lol), I can always just shut the motors off, tilt the engines up, and the boat sails and handles no different from any other TI. Actually you had a question about tilting the motors. We have had our boat anchored just off shore on a mooring ball with the motors tilted up for up to two weeks in the keys several times, obviously we went out every day. Didn't cause any issues. Actually we often camp at camp grounds near the ocean that are on skinny rivers or canals leading to the ocean, usually we have to traverse under many low bridges to get to the ocean. What we typically do is lay all the sails on the hull, tilt the motors up, pull the AMA's in then rope the AMA's up completely up and out of the water, then kayak out using the mirage drives, (usually under many low bridges), which is sometimes several miles. Once we get in clear ocean we open everything up, put the masts up, lock the AMA's out, and sail around. When we have had our fill, we put everything back down and snake our way back to the campground,( motors are typically not allowed in many of those skinny inlets so we have to peddle (depending on where you are of course. For example I wouldn't attempt the Adams causeway across key largo without a motor (just too far to peddle (miles)).
As far as storage goes, we have well over 200k miles with our camper in tow and Kayaks on the roof, we just lay the motors down on their sides in the back of the truck or on a platform on the back of the camper. The fuel tanks are sealed and there is a gas shutoff at the carb. If you forget to empty the float bowls they will eventually drip out about a table spoon of fuel, (we forget all the time,(lol)). I lay the motors on an old welcome mat that I stole from our front porch so the truck bed doesn't scratch the motors (or visa versa). Our TI is our only family boat so we use it for anything and everything. Hope some of this helps FE Edit: Our current range is around 100 miles/day (10-12 hrs@8-10mph), regardless of actual wind speed and direction, our fastest point of sail is around 10-15 degrees off the wind and our slowest is a beam reach (we try to avoid beam reaches). Obviously the more wind we have the faster we go but we but the boat gets very uncomfortable in anything over 7mph wind (we prefer <5mph winds and dead flat water, which is 80% of the year here). We have been running this exact setup now for about 4yrs, with really no changes, I don't work on the boat much anymore, we just use the darn thing, lol most everything is starting to look pretty tired, my bow sprit, mast topper and most of my rigging is now over seven yrs old.
Last edited by fusioneng on Wed Jun 28, 2017 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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