AVON sportsboat-what outboard

[joshua slocum]

some advice from others please-
I have a 4m Avon SIB which is of unknown age- I welcome advice on what engine to get. Its not going to go water skiing but needs to be useful in Scottish inland sea areas.
Likely me and two teenagers , all 6 feet size..!
I am not able to go expensive so need to fund a well maintained engine -
Any ideas - size , type and where to acquire and be not sold a dud..Boat does not have a pump either so need one of those..!!
Anyone with this model who can give advice on do's and don'ts -

[Tim M]

I suspect it'll take something upto a 40hp. I would have thought 25hp and above is probably what you want. I bought a similar boat on ebay recently and rather fancy a Mariner 40 2-stroke ex RNLI. Keep a look on boatsandoutboards and ebay. Bill Heigham advertises a lot of them although usually well overpriced. I was passing his place recently so popped into have a look at the infamous church. The only two engines he had looked battered to hell (one had a large chunk missing out of the engine tray) but he still wanted over £2k for it.

Are you planning to trail the boat or fold it up everytime? If the later you probably want to look at getting a decent electric pump. If the former a cheap pump off ebay will suffice.

PS. I've seen ex RNLI Mariner 40s (pull start, tiller steer etc) go on ebay for less than £1000 before to give you an idea of price.

[phillnjack]

you need to look around river and canal boatyards and mariners where the speed limit is
very slow.
On the upper thames the limit is very low so outboards bigger than about 15hp are
not realy wanted by the slow cruiser community.
On the coastal areas people go nuts for engine prices, but 400 to 500 should get you a
very good usefull 30 to 40 hp.
Ive got a 30hp suzuki thats probably worth about 350 and thats what i will be using with
same boat as yours.



phill