Get Home?

[koliver]

"Interesting boats" has side tracked into explaining an outboard on the transom of a luxury yacht powered by a pair of 400hp diesel engines, as if that outboard is a get home engine.
Surely not. On that application, by a Campbell River builder, that is a trolling motor.
Begs the question: Who actually needs a "Get Home"? Have any of us ever needed a Get home?
I for one, have, but since my boat has twins, the "Get Home" was the twin.
Would anyone with twins carry a third source of hp as a "Get Home"? I doubt it. I haven't ever heard of anyone doing so, but just thought I would ask.

 

[C lectric]

I agree that the 60HP outboard has nothing to do with being a get home other than it could be used as such. Call it what it was intended for, a trolling engine.

Smaller engines like that are used for trolling power very commonly in this area rather than trying to make the large engines do the job at literally no load.

On smaller boats the trolling engine will of course be smaller yet.

The O.B. will be loaded so it is not run to lightly to prevent fouling yet has enough power to operate the boat properly but for slow trolling.

 

[ben2go]

I know this is about get home power. I'll add my plans for that in a second. First, we have a lot of fishing boats on the lakes around here that use outboards as trolling motors. They are affectionately refereed to as kickers or kicker motor. They are usually between 5hp and 15hp and connected to the main outboard(s) and use the same controls. Most of the boats are between 16 and 27 feet and are trailer-able. Some can use the kicker to get home as long as weather and water conditions are favorable. Most of the bigger boats can not use the kicker to get home on. Just not enough power.


My boat will use a hydraulic motor rated for 100% duty cycle. It will be driven by an engine mounted hydraulic pump on a separate PTO diesel engine of about 35hp. The hyd. motor will sit above the transmission and will have a chain to connect to a sprocket on the coupler. The chain will be zip tied to the hyd. motor sprocket until needed. There will be a master link to connect the chain once it's run around the coupler sprocket. The helm will have a lever to operate the hydraulic motor. This same hyd. system will power my bow thruster and possibly my bow and stern windlass along with my deck crane/davit. All systems aboard my boat will be keel cooled for longevity.