The Little Evinrude That Could
Posted by Joe Kelly on Sat, Sep 03, 2011 @ 04:01 AM
On the recent Cape Cod Circumnavigation we took a brand new Nantucket Skiff on a 225 mile trip in four days. The boat had an Evinrude E-Tec 60-HP engine on it.
The motor came out of the box, put on to the boat and then I took off. With some other engines you have long break in periods where you need to put around at 1/4 throttle for hours on end and constantly changing the RPM of the motor. Not the case with this motor.
Another thing that really impressed me was the minimal use of oil. Two-Strokes over the past few years have been given a dirty name. The models from 10 years ago you would need to mix oil directly into your gas and they would burn a lot. There is no comparison with the new E-Tec two cylinders. During the trip I only burnt 3-4 cups of oil judging by the below picture. I was averaging 20 knots during the longer passages but sometimes going wide open throttle touching 30 knots.
We only used this much oil for the entire trip!!
When you do need to fill up the oil it is a very simple procedure. Turn off the engine before you begin. On the outboard, the top cover is removed. This is called the engine cowl. Taking it off only involves opening two levers located on either side of the engine. Evinrude built these large enough so that if your hands are wet or the outboard is wet you will still have enough grip. You then pull the cowl off the top of the outboard and place it inside the boat. The oil reservoir on the newest model 60-hp is located on the port side of the motor. When you unscrew the cap it has a built in safety lanyard so it can not fall into the water. Pour your oil in and you are ready to go. One thing to note is be careful where you put your hand on the motor after it has been running. Some areas can get very hot.
Overall very happy with the engine and glad it stood up to our trip. It was fuel efficient, quiet and had lots of power and torque for maneuvering up the backsides of waves in the heavier conditions.