We have bought the main motor, made a 3000 km journey to collect it, and test fitted it to the hull.

I have been keen on asymmetric motor configuration since investigating the Yamaha Ft series motors at the start of this project. The FT series are the high-thrust four-stroke motors designed to make a big boat go slow, rather than a small boat go fast. They are designed with high-ratio gearboxes that spin the props at about one-third the engine RPM, rather than the roughly one-half ration on standard gearboxes.

Yamaha only make the FT series in three sizes; 9.9, 25 and 60hp. I feared that we would end up in trouble on a bar with a pair of 9.9s. And a pair of 25 is both expensive and heavy. Much lighter is the combination of a 9.9 and a 60.

This FT60 has been bought at about half the price of a new motor, but with only 30 hours on the clock. Hence the reason for the 3000 km return trip to collect it. The motor came of a 50′ proa, where the owner had only this one motor. He found that the one motor did not provide enough maneuverability for low speed docking, and has swapped it for a pair of electric motors. He did throw in the aluminium frame that it was mounted on, making the transport in the trailer really simple.

Now that we have done a test fit, the engine box and cockpit layout can continue. We just need the seat before gluing down the components in the cockpit.

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