I do love my old two-strokes. I have four at the moment and am negotiating on a fifth. A 2.2-horse Mercury powers the sailboat dinghy; my 4-hp Suzuki runs the rowboat; the 25-hp Johnson used to run the crabbing boat before we put in wheel steering and replaced it with the 35 Merc. The 2.2 cost $100, the four was a gift, the 25 came in a boat/motor/trailer combo that cost $1,500 total, and the 35 Mercury was $400. They all needed some work, but not much.
By contrast, Defender Marine will sell you a new, 25-horse, four-stroke Mercury for $4000-$5000, depending on how it’s set up. Plus shipping and a propeller! That buys a lot of fuel.
I know, I know. That kind of thinking is inexcusable. What about pollution? What about fuel consumption? It’s bad for the environment, bad for the future of the planet. These are things we should—no, must—care about, right?
On the other hand, two-stroke motors are marvels of power-to-weight efficiency, and they’re still significantly lighter than four strokes. At my age, lugging little motors on and off dinghies is hard enough with a 35-pound or 50-pound two-stroke. Twenty more pounds is no laughing matter.
I guess I’m like a cigarette smoker in denial. As long as they’re still legal, I’ll keep using two-strokes, safe in the knowledge that 25 or 50 years from now all the noisy, fume-spewing engines will be done and dusted, along with Marlboro men and Luddites like me.
Or maybe not. I read recently that Honda has introduced a new version of a two-stroke that injects fuel into the combustion chamber under pressure instead of just sucking it up from the crankcase the old-fashioned, wasteful way. That would make it more efficient, cleaner, and probably quieter.
Are two strokes the bright future or remnants of a dark and wasteful past? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Meantime, I’ve got a small fleet of them to keep up with. When you’re out there on the mooring, enjoying a quiet sunset with a cocktail, or paddling your kayak up Spa Creek some misty morning, or idling quietly with your four-stroke purring while you troll for rockfish in the spring, if you see a guy fly by trailing a pall of blue smoke, and you hear that telltale “ring-ding-ding” of a two-stroke throwback, don’t scowl, smile.
It’s probably me, out there saving money!
by Angus Phillips
Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 08:45
It’s been 25 years since Honda introduced a 45-horsepower, four-stroke outboard motor in America, revolutionizing the industry. Until then, outboards were almost all noisy, inefficient two-strokes that left a pall of blue exhaust behind.
Four-stroke outboards till then had been considered too heavy for marine use, at least in larger sizes that dominate the outboard market. Honda pared the weight to manageable levels and the industry was transformed. It’s almost impossible to find a new two-stroke today, and four-strokes are available up to 350 horsepower.
Here’s a vignette to help explain why everything changed.
Last winter I spent five days doing race committee at Key West Race Week. Storm Trysail Club, the organizer, provided a 21-foot Parker skiff with an almost-new, 200-hp Yamaha for our mark-tending duties. We’d leave the dock at 9:30 a.m. and get back around 3:30 or 4. The run to the race course and back was six to eight miles each way at speed, and the engine ran the entire rest of the time, mostly idling as we waited to move marks around or jogged about to stay out of the race boats’ way.
At the end of the day we’d refuel. Average consumption for six or seven hours’ use was eye-opening: 11 gallons. At home, I run a 35-horse, two-stroke Mercury on an 18-foot, flat-bottom crabbing/fishing boat that weighs half what the Parker does. Put to the same use, I expect my little rig would use twice that much fuel. So, six times the power on two times the boat uses half the fuel. Eureka!
But that’s not all. The Yamaha was also quiet as a sanctuary and left no discernible exhaust trail. It was so quiet, you had to check before you left the dock at day’s end to be sure you’d cut it off.
The advantages of four-stroke outboards are so obvious, it’s a surprise anyone still uses two-strokes. So why do I have so many of them, but have yet to buy a four-stroke? The answer is simple: Money, plus a little nostalgia.
I do love my old two-strokes. I have four at the moment and am negotiating on a fifth. A 2.2-horse Mercury powers the sailboat dinghy; my 4-hp Suzuki runs the rowboat; the 25-hp Johnson used to run the crabbing boat before we put in wheel steering and replaced it with the 35 Merc. The 2.2 cost $100, the four was a gift, the 25 came in a boat/motor/trailer combo that cost $1,500 total, and the 35 Mercury was $400. They all needed some work, but not much.
By contrast, Defender Marine will sell you a new, 25-horse, four-stroke Mercury for $4000-$5000, depending on how it’s set up. Plus shipping and a propeller! That buys a lot of fuel.
I know, I know. That kind of thinking is inexcusable. What about pollution? What about fuel consumption? It’s bad for the environment, bad for the future of the planet. These are things we should—no, must—care about, right?
On the other hand, two-stroke motors are marvels of power-to-weight efficiency, and they’re still significantly lighter than four strokes. At my age, lugging little motors on and off dinghies is hard enough with a 35-pound or 50-pound two-stroke. Twenty more pounds is no laughing matter.
I guess I’m like a cigarette smoker in denial. As long as they’re still legal, I’ll keep using two-strokes, safe in the knowledge that 25 or 50 years from now all the noisy, fume-spewing engines will be done and dusted, along with Marlboro men and Luddites like me.
Or maybe not. I read recently that Honda has introduced a new version of a two-stroke that injects fuel into the combustion chamber under pressure instead of just sucking it up from the crankcase the old-fashioned, wasteful way. That would make it more efficient, cleaner, and probably quieter.
Are two strokes the bright future or remnants of a dark and wasteful past? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Meantime, I’ve got a small fleet of them to keep up with. When you’re out there on the mooring, enjoying a quiet sunset with a cocktail, or paddling your kayak up Spa Creek some misty morning, or idling quietly with your four-stroke purring while you troll for rockfish in the spring, if you see a guy fly by trailing a pall of blue smoke, and you hear that telltale “ring-ding-ding” of a two-stroke throwback, don’t scowl, smile.
It’s probably me, out there saving money!
by Angus Phillips
I do love my old two-strokes. I have four at the moment and am negotiating on a fifth. A 2.2-horse Mercury powers the sailboat dinghy; my 4-hp Suzuki runs the rowboat; the 25-hp Johnson used to run the crabbing boat before we put in wheel steering and replaced it with the 35 Merc. The 2.2 cost $100, the four was a gift, the 25 came in a boat/motor/trailer combo that cost $1,500 total, and the 35 Mercury was $400. They all needed some work, but not much.
By contrast, Defender Marine will sell you a new, 25-horse, four-stroke Mercury for $4000-$5000, depending on how it’s set up. Plus shipping and a propeller! That buys a lot of fuel.
I know, I know. That kind of thinking is inexcusable. What about pollution? What about fuel consumption? It’s bad for the environment, bad for the future of the planet. These are things we should—no, must—care about, right?
On the other hand, two-stroke motors are marvels of power-to-weight efficiency, and they’re still significantly lighter than four strokes. At my age, lugging little motors on and off dinghies is hard enough with a 35-pound or 50-pound two-stroke. Twenty more pounds is no laughing matter.
I guess I’m like a cigarette smoker in denial. As long as they’re still legal, I’ll keep using two-strokes, safe in the knowledge that 25 or 50 years from now all the noisy, fume-spewing engines will be done and dusted, along with Marlboro men and Luddites like me.
Or maybe not. I read recently that Honda has introduced a new version of a two-stroke that injects fuel into the combustion chamber under pressure instead of just sucking it up from the crankcase the old-fashioned, wasteful way. That would make it more efficient, cleaner, and probably quieter.
Are two strokes the bright future or remnants of a dark and wasteful past? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Meantime, I’ve got a small fleet of them to keep up with. When you’re out there on the mooring, enjoying a quiet sunset with a cocktail, or paddling your kayak up Spa Creek some misty morning, or idling quietly with your four-stroke purring while you troll for rockfish in the spring, if you see a guy fly by trailing a pall of blue smoke, and you hear that telltale “ring-ding-ding” of a two-stroke throwback, don’t scowl, smile.
It’s probably me, out there saving money!
by Angus Phillips