[Rhodes22-list] HP for motor

[Ron Kaye]

David,

We have a relatively new Merc 9.9 "Bigfoot" extra long shaft.  It is a big,
heavy, powerful motor with a high-thrust prop.  At, I believe, 115 lbs it is
heavy.  The lift-assist is essential and if that thing breaks it will be
difficult.  The main reason for getting this motor is that I wanted the
extra long shaft.  We will be sticking our nose out of the mouth of
the Potomac into the bay and that area can produce some steep and difficult
waves.  I know this from experience 20 years ago with a 27' sailboat in that
area and the prop was airborne again and again and that made things more
difficult and stressful than necessary.  I didn't want any more of that. It
may be overkill but I just don't like the pospect of the prop bouncing out
of the water.  I would have taken an 8 HP but it wasn't available in the
extra-long shaft.  Also, the mercs are all designed now to run on up to 10%
ethanol.  That was a problem for the Yamaha 9.9 we had which was eventually
stolen though it wasn't in good health.

We have only had it running a couple months but so far it is behaving
well.  We have no problems with it operating at slow enough speed to
maneuver (in forward) and if we want, it revs up and pushes the boat along
briskly.  It starts like a charm (well, its new).   The only problems with
it are 1: it is heavy, and 2: the throttle tends to rev up too easily in
reverse, it kicks up a bit and I am a bit nervous at times that it could
damage the mount so I have to be extra-extra careful when using reverse
gear.
I picked up a tip from this list about disconnecting the fuel line and
running the fuel out of the engine when we shut down.  I had not done that
before but with all the problems we had with the fuel system for the Yamaha,
I always do that now.

Ron and Lisa