Tilting outboards whilst under sail is common on Bob Oram Designs. This is a very effective way of completely removing any drag caused by the drive units. As much as I like the idea of the light weight and reliable 4 stroke outboards with their tilting capability, I have concern about certain matters:
- A number of sisterships to our boat report significant propellor cavitation on Honda 20hp and Yamaha 9.9 etc.
- availability of gasoline
- contaminate free gasoline
- expense of gasoline
- and last but by no means least the ignition flash point of gasoline.
We are planning to sail around the world and I would prefer not to have cavitating propellors when relying on auxillary power in rough conditions. Gasoline is not easily available in a large number of areas a cruiser might visit. Gasoline is commonly contaminated in an increasingly number of ways especially as the price rises and all variations of additives are used.
I fully realise gasoline is not the only hydrocarbon fuel that is increasing in price, however I have come to the conclusion that diesel will always give way more torque and much better consumption figures.
These details combined with reliability over long operating times has lead us to inboard diesel.
Therefore I have spent quite some time finding the right brand and drive combination and have recently placed an order for two of the following:
each with this option:
The Scrumble Project 