AKA SV Unladen Swallow's tiny tender
Coconut is our “Car”. We use it to go back and forth from the Unladen Swallow when she’s on anchor (AKA the hook) or tied up to a mooring ball. A cruising yacht tender needs to be lightweight, stable, nimble and tough. Coconut is an APEX A-10 Rigid Inflatable Bottom (RIB) dinghy. It can carry 6 people or roughly 1,000 lbs of payload. Swallow’s previous owner gave us the 25HP 2-Stroke Mercury outboard motor that he used while circumnavigating to use with Coconut.
The motor is fitted with dolphin wing that allows it to get up on plane quickly and once on plane, Coconut flies along at speeds that make Unladen Swallow quite jealous. In fact a 2 or 3 mile one-way ride in Coconut in reasonably flat conditions only take 15-20 mins.
Coconut is stored upside down ahead of the mast while we are underway and it spends nights when we are at anchor or on a mooring hanging from a Spinnaker halyard against the hull of Unladen Swallow to ensure it doesn’t break free and to make it more difficult for someone with bad-intentions to mess with it or the engine.
Love/ Hate Relationship with the Mercury Outboard
No one ever accused Lee of being a grease monkey. Working, living and maintaining a "large" 2 stroke motor has been a learning experience.
We've had carburetor issues on and off since we first started using it.
Thinking back on our issues, here are some lessons learned:
Install a small RACOR filter inline to catch water and debris before they get near the motor
Be intentional about measuring the 2 stroke mixture - we were not anal about this and likely were running with mixes that were likely too oily most of the time
Carry spare carburetor rebuild kits and learn how to reliably remove, and rebuild the carburetor
Other things to consider:
Carry and extra propellor - when I was growing up, the props were held on the shaft with a shear pin that would break if the prop got caught on something. Apparently that has fallen out of favor and now the inner hub on the propellor is designed to "spin" i.e. break free of the housing. Once that happens the propellor will start to spin on the shaft once the force exceeds the friction of the hub on the shaft. They do sell rebuild kits, but they are 70% of the cost of a replacement prop. Locals often just drill holes through the housing and run a screw into the hub to hold it in place, but if you catch the prop on something, the screw will not break and you will destroy the gears in your lower unit instead.
Lubricate the screw clamps that hold your motor on the dinghy transom on a regular basis - if they become frozen you may end up breaking one or both of the screw clamps making it difficult to use the motor securely anchored to the dinghy transom.
Locks and Theft - Dinghy motors are prized throughout most of the Caribbean. Keep your motor secure and obscure - many people have covers made for the motor cowling to hide the brand and size. The motor needs to be securely locked to the dinghy and you need a secure way of locking the dinghy to the main boat or dock when you are there. Lifting the dinghy out of the water at night will make it more difficult to steal and also limit the bottom growth since it spends 8+ hours out of the water each day.