JetSetterJoe.com

My very first outboard motor was a 25 hp Evinrude 2-stroke that I used with a 13-foot Boston Whaler imitation skiff as a kid. That old 2-stroke was noisy and smoked profusely when you first turned it on but proved reliable as it would generally start with a few pulls of the rope (or ten or twenty) even after long periods of inactivity.

Since that first experience all the boats I’ve owned have had four-stroke motors. Four-strokes are clean, fuel-efficient and hardly smoke at all even if they are heavier and less powerful than comparable traditional two-strokes; however, new technology 2-stroke engines are challenging and even surpassing 4-stokes in many areas.

One such engine is the Evinrude E-Tec, which won the 2007 JD Power and Associates award for highest customer satisfaction. This motor has fuel economy and emissions figures that rival those of 4-stroke engines with the added advantages of lighter weight, more power and no maintenance requirements for 3 years.

Personally, I have never used a boat with an E-Tec and I’m not ready to trade in Yamaha 4-stroke but I’m intrigued by the prospects of the new technology. On my 18’ Century, the Yamaha F115 takes longer to put me on plane than I would expect. Maybe a new technology 2-stoke, with its lighter weight and higher power curve, would do the job quicker without sacrificing two much in terms of economy and emissions. In the end, the choice between 2 and 4-stroke seems to be more of an emotional one. If you look through the boating forums on the web, this is a hotly debated issue and everyone seems to have an opinion.

When you look closely at the data (even the figures from Evinrude’s own website) the differences between the “clean” E-Tec and the Yamaha 4-strokes doesn’t seem that great. The difference in weight between a 150 hp Yamaha and the E-Tec is about 85 lbs. (The Mercury 4-Stroke is much heavier for some reason. I have owned a Mercury 90 hp 4-Stroke and prefer the F115 because it is quieter and smoother.) Fuel economy at cruise speed is almost dead even and difference in the power curve between the 225 E-Tec and the Yamaha F225 is not huge. The maintenance schedule on the E-Tec is one advantage, even though the cost of the expensive 2-Stoke oil used by the E-Tec may offset some of the savings in maintenance costs. I do all my own maintenance and it is a hassle; however, even with the reduced oil consumption promised by Evinrude, $30 to $40 per gallon sounds like a lot for oil. (Folks in the message boards say you can get oil for as low as $20 per gallon if you shop around.)

I am happy with the Yamaha and not likely to switch anytime soon; however, I am happy there are other options for clean outboard power out there. With the threat of global warming and increased environmental awareness recreational boaters are under ever mounting pressure to clean up their act. Technologies such as Evinrude’s E-Tec mean that we can have our cake and eat it too, all the while feeling good about ourselves.