Outboard advise

[chaskins]

Hi,

Finally after 4 years of convincing my wife that she would really enjoy boating I finally got the go ahead and bought a 3.4m Quicksilver inflatable and Mariner 5hp 2 stroke outboard. Not grand but it's a start .

I picked it up last Thursday and took it out for it's maidan voyage at the weekend. I must admit it really enjoyed it and surprisingly so did my wife. Even better still my 2 year old daughter couldn't stop grinning and really enjoyed it, infact she cryed when we called it a day.

But enough of that, down to my real questions.

This is my first outboard and I have been reading up about how to care for it etc but would just like some confirmation. The outboard I bought was new and I guess I should have left it until next year before using it, but I just couldn't wait. What should I do to prepare it for the winter now that I have used it?
When I returned home I ran it up on a bin of fresh water to flush it through, is that ok/good enough? I also washed down the outside of the outboard and dryed it off. Is there anything else I needed to do?
Also reading the manual it seems you can attach a hose to the engine to flush it out, I take it you need to buy a connector for this? If so any ideas where I can pick one up? It saves annoying the neighbours

Finally how should I store this engine for the winter? I have built a wooden bracket on the wall to allow me to store the the engine upright. There is still fuel in the internal tank, does this need draining or should I add something to it to keep it "fresh"? Do I need to grease points, as it was all done when I picked it up.

Sorry for all the questions but now I finally own a boat I would like to make sure I get some trouble free use of it

Thanks

Chris

[Louise]

Chris, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new purchase - I'm sure you'll have hours of fun in her. Many people here started with a small boat like you - some have moved onto bigger boats (although some have also moved back to having a smaller boat instead of or as well as their bigger one) but others (Keith Hart especially) just love their SIBs!

Regarding your quesion, if you do a search on 'winterisation' or 'winterising' you will find lots of useful info from previous discussions. Here's a couple to get you started: http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread....=winterisation , http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread....ight=winterise .

Of course, if you continue to take advantage of any nice days through the winter then you don't need to winterise at all. By far the most fun option IMHO! HTH

[Searider]

Hi Chris,

Sounds like a good purchase. 5hp Yamaha is a fantastic engine. I had one of the 4hp ones about 15 years ago and even though abused by 6 children is still going strong with my sisters children.

Why wait to use it until next year - you bought it to use it!

Running it up in a bin of fresh water is the right thing to do - getting the salt out (I assume you used it in the sea?) If you used it in a fresh water river then there is no need to do this.
Regarding the flushing kit all this does is supply water to the cooling system - you still need to run the engine so you'll just have to hope the neighbours get used to a bit of noise every now and then.

The petrol in the tank may go off over the winter so you could empty it out and ditch it or put it in the car.

As for stowing it upright on a wooden bracket - perfect. This will allow the cooling system to drain and prevent any frost damage.

If the greasy bits inside are still greasy then there's not much to do. A spray of a water displacer such as WD40 or duck oil wouldn't go amiss though.


Finally, something that I confess that I have never bothered doing is to use some inhibiting oil in the bores. I think that you spray it through the carb when finally running it up to coat the bores - still I haven't done it and have not had problems.

Regards

[chaskins]

Hi Louise, Searider,

Thanks for the welcome and great advise.

BTW, I would love to use my boat over the winter months, but don't know where to go, I live in Bristol. I only managed to test her out at Portishead marina just to make sure everything was ok. So I didn't really get to do anything spectacular or exciting. Any ideas of places to go?

I'm doing my powerboat level 2 course and ICC on Monday and I can't wait for that. Hopefully it will give me more confidence to take it out over the winter months and maybe ideas of places to go.

Thanks again,

Chris

[Louise]

Jools, a fellow RIBnet member, is based in Portishead I believe so it may be worth getting in touch by sending him a private message. He has a website about his boat http://www.ribpanther.co.uk/ and it includes some trips local to you in the 2002 Ship's Log.

Good luck with your course!

[mstacey]

Originally Posted by chaskins

Hi Louise, Searider,


BTW, I would love to use my boat over the winter months, but don't know where to go, I live in Bristol. I only managed to test her out at Portishead marina just to make sure everything was ok. So I didn't really get to do anything spectacular or exciting. Any ideas of places to go?

Chris,

Launch down by the Harbour Master Office into the Harbour in Bristol itself and you can travel through the docks upto St Annes and the Netham Lock and then up river towards Bath.

[Louise]

Martin - sorry, didn't realise you lived in Bristol!

Chris - do look at Martin's website - he's done loads of interesting cruising with his RIB.

[chaskins]

I have just been looking around Martin's site, very nice.

Martin, Thanks for that I had not thought of a trip around the docks. Do you know what it costs to launch there? I take it a chat to the harbour master irst wouldn't go a miss.

Thanks

Chris

[marknj]

[QUOTE=Searider] Hi Chris,
If the greasy bits inside are still greasy then there's not much to do. A spray of a water displacer such as WD40 or duck oil wouldn't go amiss though.

Never use WD40 on anything rubber such as outboard engine plug caps and other insulation as it will rot them and make them perish Can also do other strange things as well. Duck Oil, GT85 or AC90 are fine but do not spray on any greased parts as it will break down the the grease. WD40 is fine for nuts & bolts and getting oil/grease marks out of cloths pre-wash

Cheers,
Mark.

[chaskins]

Thanks great advise. I really please I stumbled across this forum

Cheers

Chris