kicker for a 23

[BillPutney]

I'm considering getting a kicker for my 23. You can see the type bracket I have in the photo section on the site.Any info. on a similar type setup would be appreciated,ie. size ,should it be a long shaft ,more along the lines of a sailboat or what?Slow rpm's high torque? I have seen posts that reference this but can't remember who posted . Thanks

[bigeasy1]

Go with a high thrust four stroke in the 8 to 9.9 range.Yamaha and Honda both produce high thrust kicker motors that are specifically made to push heavy loads like sail boats.
They are awesome kicker motors for trolling and as a back up in an emergency.

I currently have two Yamaha kickers.One is a 9.9 Yamaha high thrust four stroke.It's on my 22' Trophy and is used exclusively for great lakes salmon trolling.
It will push this boat(5,000lbs with people and gear)to about 5.5 to 6 MPH.
It runs for at least ten continuous hours at a time,and never misses a beat.

The other engine is a Yamaha 8hp high thrust with power trim and tilt/electric start.It's mounted on my 23 Tsunami project,and will be pushing this boat in the fall.
I have no doubts that it will do none other than a fine job.

Both of these are connected to the outdrive via an EZ-Steer connector rod.You can hook the kicker to an outboard with the same connector system.

Oh yeah,they both are long shaft(20")motors.
Following is a picture of my new 8hp kicker setup on my SeaCraft Tsunami project.
Hope this helps some.

[Fr. Frank]

High thrust 8-15hp will push the boat very well. You might gain 2 mph with the 15 hp over an 8 hp.

Back in the mid 80's, I used to have a 5hp British Seagull with the 4 blade squared high-thrust prop on my 23cc, and I could troll all day at 4-5 mph, and max push was about 6-7 mph.

I used to have a 2hp Suzuki on my 20' Seafari, and it would push it to 4 mph at WOT, and run all day. I mixed the fuel for it at 40-1, instead of the recommended 50-1 because I ran it so hard. I actually put more hours on that 2hp than my 150 for the first couple of years I had this Seafari, cause I was fishing all the time. (BTW, it still runs great)

[BillPutney]

Fr. Frank I'm curious , did you carry an extra tank for the kicker ,and when you needed it ,mixed the oil in or did you somehow connect to the onboard tank and add the additional oil in as needed.Back in the late sixties/early seventies my family had a 19' Flying Scot sailboat with a British seagull for aux. power . They looked so primitive but it ran like a top. I'm considering mounting some type of bracket inside the console on the Seacraft to keep the kicker,so as not to have it in the way mounted to the Armstrong bracket when fishing , or am I over thinking the situation. When fighting a fish that runs under the rear it seems tricky sometimes trying work him around the engine.I can imagine another engine hanging off is just more of a hassle. Any thoughts/suggestions very much appreciated.

[Fr. Frank]

Fr. Frank I'm curious , did you carry an extra tank for the kicker ,and when you needed it ,mixed the oil in or did you somehow connect to the onboard tank and add the additional oil in as needed.

My 5hp Seagull ran on 50-1 mix, the only SeaGull to do so (as others ran 100-1, and some 32-1), and it had both the original 1 gallon brass fuel tank, and an auxiliary fuel inlet, with a selector valve. Having no fuel pump, however, meant that I had to have an auxiliary tank higher than the carburetor to run off the aux. line. I had a bait-cutting board that hung over the gunwale on the port side, and I would set the aux tank on that and secure it with bungies.

I, too, had difficulty working a fish around the motors occasionally, and lost more than one nice fish that way, most notably a white marlin in the Tongue off Eleuthera back in the mid 80's that we estimated at about 30-35 lbs. Sadly, I have never caught or released a white marlin since. I have caught lots of other billfish: sailfish, swordfish, and black marlin, but never a blue or white marlin.

I was on a charter boat that did a Four Fish Slam once off Palm Beach,(Marlin, Sailfish, Dolphin, & Wahoo on the same trip), but I was the mate. None of the fish were spectacular, it's just that we caught all four on one trip. Heck, we caught three out of the four in two hours and had the wahoo and dolphin on at the same time. Just trolled up and down the sargasso weed line.

I don't live there anymore, but I still think offshore fishing from Dania to Sebastian is the best in America, and I particularly like Lake Worth Inlet to St. Lucie Inlet around the outer reefs.