Page 7 - How to Go Boating Flip 1
P. 7
owering the Boat
If your car stops, you can push it off the road and call the It’s All about Outboards
AA. It isn’t quite as simple with a boat. For this reason the
motor you buy has to be totally reliable and capable of We need to start with a little history and brand recognition. For many
doing the job in whatever conditions you face. With that in of the early years the local outboard market was dominated by the
mind, and before we get deeply into the subject of boats, big three: OMC (with the Johnson and Evinrude brands), Mercury and
we need to discuss the options you have. Chrysler. There were others, such as the mighty little Seagull motors
that powered just about every dinghy in New Zealand, but the main
Most trailer boats are powered by outboard motors.
Outboards have the advantage of being easy to access three owned the market.
and work on, reliable, simple to source parts for and By the early 1980s the Japanese presence was
easy to install.
being felt. Yamaha was a no-name brand in the late
Inboards, where the motor is mounted in the boat 1970s and beginning of the ’80s, but would soon
and drives a fixed propeller via a shaft through the boat, come to dominate the New Zealand market. Honda
are seldom found on trailer boats so are not included and Suzuki also entered the market. Honda was the
here. Jet units are specialised and are also excluded. first to introduce four-stroke technology and, for a
long time, had the market pretty much exclusively.
Many larger trailer boats are fitted with a The early Suzukis were good motors with many
sterndrive. A sterndrive has the bottom half of an firsts, including the first oil injection.
outboard plus the drive of an inboard (for years
they were called inboard/outboards).They can be Electrolysis problems were often seen,
a very good option, but there are pros and cons. particularly around paintwork. In fact, most
Because sterndrives use four-stroke technology, or manufacturers had issues back in those times.
diesel, they can be fuel-efficient and cheap to run. Huge amounts of time and money were invested
In smaller boats sterndrives will use up some of the in reducing electrolysis issues to a bare minimum.
available cockpit space and can be difficult to access Paint systems in particular have undergone huge
for maintenance. That said, there have been some transformation.
very efficient smaller sterndrives introduced in recent
years and clever boatbuilders have incorporated A really big change in the market occurred in
them beautifully into their transom designs. 2000 with the bankruptcy of OMC. Bombardier
purchased the company and continued to build
outboard motors, developing the highly regarded
Evinrude E-TEC outboards. OMC had problems over
41
If your car stops, you can push it off the road and call the It’s All about Outboards
AA. It isn’t quite as simple with a boat. For this reason the
motor you buy has to be totally reliable and capable of We need to start with a little history and brand recognition. For many
doing the job in whatever conditions you face. With that in of the early years the local outboard market was dominated by the
mind, and before we get deeply into the subject of boats, big three: OMC (with the Johnson and Evinrude brands), Mercury and
we need to discuss the options you have. Chrysler. There were others, such as the mighty little Seagull motors
that powered just about every dinghy in New Zealand, but the main
Most trailer boats are powered by outboard motors.
Outboards have the advantage of being easy to access three owned the market.
and work on, reliable, simple to source parts for and By the early 1980s the Japanese presence was
easy to install.
being felt. Yamaha was a no-name brand in the late
Inboards, where the motor is mounted in the boat 1970s and beginning of the ’80s, but would soon
and drives a fixed propeller via a shaft through the boat, come to dominate the New Zealand market. Honda
are seldom found on trailer boats so are not included and Suzuki also entered the market. Honda was the
here. Jet units are specialised and are also excluded. first to introduce four-stroke technology and, for a
long time, had the market pretty much exclusively.
Many larger trailer boats are fitted with a The early Suzukis were good motors with many
sterndrive. A sterndrive has the bottom half of an firsts, including the first oil injection.
outboard plus the drive of an inboard (for years
they were called inboard/outboards).They can be Electrolysis problems were often seen,
a very good option, but there are pros and cons. particularly around paintwork. In fact, most
Because sterndrives use four-stroke technology, or manufacturers had issues back in those times.
diesel, they can be fuel-efficient and cheap to run. Huge amounts of time and money were invested
In smaller boats sterndrives will use up some of the in reducing electrolysis issues to a bare minimum.
available cockpit space and can be difficult to access Paint systems in particular have undergone huge
for maintenance. That said, there have been some transformation.
very efficient smaller sterndrives introduced in recent
years and clever boatbuilders have incorporated A really big change in the market occurred in
them beautifully into their transom designs. 2000 with the bankruptcy of OMC. Bombardier
purchased the company and continued to build
outboard motors, developing the highly regarded
Evinrude E-TEC outboards. OMC had problems over
41
