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I am reminded of an experience with the Suzuki 6 hp/4 stroke that happened following a hurricane warning in August 2008.
We were required to move our sailboats from the club's mooring field because of the hurricane warning having been posted for Dade County. I and others moved to a protected interior waterway with a lot of mangroves on each side of the waterway. There is a marked channel leading into the waterway and the depth is 10-12' because some very large mega yachts use it to get in and out from their backyard docks in a "Millionaire's community".
Anyway, after the storm passed I began motoring back out the waterway. I was confronted by a 15-18 kts E head wind directly on the bow plus a flooding tide. The combination of these two factors, plus the weight of S/V Tadpole, had a very significant impact. I could NOT motor directly out of the channel. Doing so I immediately lost head way and began drifting backwards despite full throttle. Although it did not (and does not) make sense to me aerodynamically, I had to "tack" (under power at full throttle) back and forth at about 45 degrees off the wind to make any headway despite presenting more of S/V Tadpole's hull to the wind and flooding tide. It was a little unnerving and something I do not want to repeat.
I am confident if I had a 2 hp O/B I would have been pushed back into the mangroves or onto a piling.
Sea Hunt wrote:Although it did not (and does not) make sense to me aerodynamically, I had to "tack" (under power at full throttle) back and forth at about 45 degrees off the wind to make any headway despite presenting more of S/V Tadpole's hull to the wind and flooding tide.
You need to draw the vectors to see exactly what forces were affecting the boat. By the way, have you ever noticed how the shape of the hull makes for a pretty good air foil? How much lift do you suppose you get with the right angle of attack?
All the speeds are from my GPS. From my observations it seems to me hull speed for the Typhoon is around 4 - 4 1/2 mph. What I have found is the Honda is a very capable outboard that works well in most conditions. The main thing for me is it changes the sailing characteristics of the Ty as little as possible. Being a longtime sea kayaker if I know I'll be battling some tides/currents I'll time my trips accordingly. Nothing worse than having to paddle against a strong current.
