Bluebacks-16' back-up power.

B

Blueback

New member
Let me define our philosophy in this concept I present here:
My wife and I are minimalists and therefore we look to simplify our boating concepts and offer this idea to those like minded.
I have a great Yamaha 6HP trolling motor and or backup power, that never gets used, since I re-powered Blueback with a 50HP Honda. The older main motor, a 2-stroke 30HP Yamaha made a poor, smoky, trolling motor. The new (to me 2003 BF50 Honda) does it all. My salmon trolling speeds range from 1.5--4MPH GPS over the ground. And even at 1 1/2-2 MPH it's easy now to obtain a clean,smooth, low speed at 1400 RPMs (and its still charging too!!).
So the question then for me, why hang another 60 lb motor off my transit? Back-up power you say. While I wait for a main engine failure I have a tank full of stale pre-mix gas to deal with.
Then, I watched the Paddle Boarders skim past our beach, and a light went on. The 16-Dory is not much to move about at slow, displacement speed. And standing in the cockpit with a long Boarder's paddle my wife and I can move alone in calm conditions quite well. Yeah - if we need it-- as the rock solid Honda is -as you know very reliable. And the key to that reliability, is a clean fuel system, which I'm a stickler on. A further use for these specialty paddles can be to slip into a cove to beach or anchor that has rocks or stumps to creep around to finally beach.
So to Walmart or Amazon.
Blue Wave Sports 2-Piece Adjustable Aluminum Stand Up Paddleboard Paddle
$71.99
It takes down to 35" for storage.
I am not critical of the high-tech group here, with lots of money to spend for fun and Dory comfort.
I just suggest this idea for the simple "minimalists" that I know are members of this board too.
PS canoe paddles are way too short.
WSYA?
 
I used to have a 15 ft Montgomery sail boat that weighed in at close to the 16 C-Dory. I used a paddle to move that around occasionally. I have also used a paddle to move my 22 Cruiser on occasion. If I had a 16 I would look seriously into rigging it with oar locks and oars. The SUP paddles seem like a decent option but I would think, especially if you were single handing, that rowing would be more controlled and more efficient.

As a side note, from a friend who was a general aviation pilot for many many years, and flew single engine airplanes much of his adult life, His C-Dory had a single Honda 90. He said his airplane never had a kicker motor, why should his boat. He did maintain that Honda like it was an airplane motor though. (Probably good practice if it is the only one on board.)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
I like it and may go that route for such a craft. The biggest reason we have a torqeedo on board is for the Dinghy. If we did not have use for a dinghy,
I would likely just use a 12v trolling motor as our "backup".

All of our boats already have a 12v source and a simple motor is relatively cheap and requires no real maintenance. It would give paddles a run for there money and do it in silence as well.

Greg
 
You know, I understand what you're saying and certainly consider myself at least a wannabe minimalist. I remember when my son had a 20 or 30 year old single engine Grumman low wing plane and I had an 18 foot boat with a 115hp motor and a 5 hp kicker. I loved to stand next to that plane and have a picture taken, but I was always scared to fly in it. When he and I bought a 22 foot C-Dory together the first thing he did was hang a kicker on the stern. Later, I had 5hp Honda kicker on our 16 footers. Frankly, one of the real joys on our 16 footer was turning off the main engine, sitting in the stern and putting around with the kicker.
 
Blueback,

I would get a couple 10 ft oars, install oar locks at the center of the boat, and use those.

In a 20 ft, 1700 lb inboard, dry, we found we could sustain about 1.5 knots in windless conditions, standing, with two 200 lb guys aboard, one guy rowing, the other telling him how to row LOL. In a 10 knot breeze, I think the oars would mainly help decide which end of the boat hit the beach first, with some choice in which beach it would be.

A very fit human can produce about 0.75 hp. We are just not as powerful as a small kicker OB.
 
hardee":2acr9xxz said:
I used to have a 15 ft Montgomery sail boat that weighed in at close to the 16 C-Dory. I used a paddle to move that around occasionally. I have also used a paddle to move my 22 Cruiser on occasion. If I had a 16 I would look seriously into rigging it with oar locks and oars. The SUP paddles seem like a decent option but I would think, especially if you were single handing, that rowing would be more controlled and more efficient.

As a side note, from a friend who was a general aviation pilot for many many years, and flew single engine airplanes much of his adult life, His C-Dory had a single Honda 90. He said his airplane never had a kicker motor, why should his boat. He did maintain that Honda like it was an airplane motor though. (Probably good practice if it is the only one on board.)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
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Harvey - I LOL about the small single engine aircraft comparison to a single engine boat. Makes one think--eh.
I had my private pilots license and flew small single engine aircraft in my youth and never gave it too much thought. Well-- at times, some thought, if the engine coughed a bit, then you swung your head around the horizon for a possible emergency landing site. Ah- yes- in your twenties your invincible--eh. Now, about to become 80 this year, I only fly in charter or commercial aircraft. However, my F800 GS BMW motorcycle flies fast enough to keep up to my wife's Triumph-Bonneville.
Oars--hmmm. I can see me in the cockpit sitting in a highchair in order to dip the 10ft oars in the water. Conversely, cutting holes in the side of the Dory and making like a Roman galley slave. I think my wife with the other oar would have something to say about that. Although Aline, who has paddle boarded, likes the idea of us both paddling Blueback together - if-or when needed - standing there like Gondoliers.
Yes-Venice is famous for their Gondolas which many are still powered by hand.

Geoff and Aline
 
Sitting and rowing a C-Dory would be tough to get oars in the water but I think standing facing forward would work nicely. When I was a kid, around here, fisherman stood to row tenders and some big and wide lighters while hauling the end of purse-sein nets around sardine schools. Many of the older "Monterey Clipper"salmon trollers had a set of oars as backup for when their one lung engines had probs (rowed standing). These where 24-30ft. displacement hulls. Not fast but OK until a tow came along. As kids we all often rowed standing for manuvering around the harbor or just because!
 
olsurfdog":203qoebs said:
Sitting and rowing a C-Dory would be tough to get oars in the water but I think standing facing forward would work nicely. When I was a kid, around here, fisherman stood to row tenders and some big and wide lighters while hauling the end of purse-sein nets around sardine schools. Many of the older "Monterey Clipper"salmon trollers had a set of oars as backup for when their one lung engines had probs (rowed standing). These where 24-30ft. displacement hulls. Not fast but OK until a tow came along. As kids we all often rowed standing for manuvering around the harbor or just because!
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Loved your answer --you must have old bark on you too. Yes standing to be able to overcome a high gunnels and get your oars in the water is as old as the Venice Gondoliers and no doubt back further to the days of Christ on the Nile.
But oars are long and heavy and then oars locks etc., not a simple solution IMO.
These light aluminum paddles, dissembled take up little room (35"). And they are CCG approved as emergency equipment.
 
Blueback,

A pair of oars, used from a standing position, will give you maximal use of your 0.75 hp. Even so, 10 knots of wind will likely overwhelm your rowing efforts. Those SUP paddles, one per person, one person on each gunnel, might compare, and surely is better than nothing.

Note that a 6 hp kicker will provide eight times the power.
 
The other thing about C-Dory's is that they fall off sharply from the wind. I think it would be difficult to go anywhere but downwind if one was rowing. Maintaining a heading into any sort of wind might take most of your effort just to keep it there.
 
ssobol":3psm27vh said:
The other thing about C-Dory's is that they fall off sharply from the wind. I think it would be difficult to go anywhere but downwind if one was rowing. Maintaining a heading into any sort of wind might take most of your effort just to keep it there.
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So you can row downwind until the oar can reach the bottom, then you "Pole" :lol:

:shock: or get out and walk :oops:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
hardee":1i5h4yc6 said:
So you can row downwind until the oar can reach the bottom, then you "Pole" :lol:

:shock: or get out and walk :oops:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
Click to expand...

Only useful if the wind is blowing somewhere you want to go.
 
Over the 7 years I trolled SE AK and ran back and forth each way from Seattle to Ketch, I lost power twice..... got the engine going both times ( fuel filter issues) but it was a bit worrysome for a spell, particularly when it pooped out south east of point Baker with the rocks getting closer on the starboard side and a pod of seven or so Orcas on the port frolicking around 75-100 yds away. All worked out OK but I will definitely have a kicker when I start to wander around the west coast of Prince of Wales and points further west, like off Coronation and off the west coast of Baranoff, and outside Noyes and Dall islands, it just might make an old man sleep better a night :D
 
ssobol":1syoqqzg said:
hardee":1syoqqzg said:
So you can row downwind until the oar can reach the bottom, then you "Pole" :lol:

:shock: or get out and walk :oops:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
Click to expand...

Only useful if the wind is blowing somewhere you want to go.
Click to expand...

Being in the middle of the ocean, any lake, or the river and the power system poops out, Where you want to go is the shore, right? The wind is blowing that way :shock:

As to rowing and minimizing that, a single oar at the stern for sculling is pretty effective, and, though it won't equal a pair of oars, it can be very quiet and peaceful.

Anything less than a 5hp OB, in a 10+ wind and you are only going to be (maybe) picking which end of the boat hits the rocks first.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
My concern with a SUP paddle would be flex. A paddle boarder is pushing only themselves and the board over the water. Almost zero drag and less than 300#. Still, some people complain of inexpensive SUP paddles flexing. Since aluminum tends to flex and stay flexed, using an aluminum SUP paddle to move +1,500# of boat, gear, and people through the water could be asking too much. You could take dainty little strokes, but just when you really need a paddle, a long SUP may fail.

I haven't tried my electric trolling motor on my 16 yet. It looks like, with a waterproof bag over the control head, that the engine would sit down in the splash well for storage. I already have Hella sockets set up for down riggers, so a Hella plug on the electric motor would make it plug-and-play.

The prior owner had two canoe paddles on board. I also haven't tried them. I think I'll try the electric motor first.

Mark
 
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