by Chris Wicks » Fri May 10, 2024 10:24 am
Hi Johanna,
I've owned Kaliope CC19 67 since new in 2006. It spends 6 months per year on a swinging mooring in the Aegean sea. Of course it makes the outboard leg a little vulnerable.
I started off with a Honda 5, moved on about 7 years ago to a Mercury 6 (Mariner/Tohatsu are the same as the Mercury) Occasionally I have used my Yamaha 4 which is otherwise on my Lune Whammel.
To be honest there is not much between any of them in terms of noise, vibration or performance. I used to service the engine myself but now have it serviced professionally. It shouldn't be more than 100 EUR / £ to include oil, outdrive leg, impeller check and annode.
I like the Mercury to which I added a saildrive propellor. The forward facing gear lever is particularly useful. Occasionally the device that prevents starting in gear would engage mid pull of the starter cord sending recoil to my shoulder! So I removed the device... No problems but check you are in neutral.
Before launching on all these engines I antifoul the lower drive leg and propellor ( the wet bit). The antifouling must be suitable for aluminium drive legs. I apply a couple of coats by brush. During the season I clean the leg of weed etc a few times. I have never had a problem with this.
During engine service I clean out the internals of the drive leg around the water intake and impellor.
One last thing. The Mercury annode is rather small and eroded completely before the end of the season. So I added an additional larger annode on the fin above the propellor. No problems.
So choose whatever engine you fancy, personally I am happy to stick with the Mercury.
Chris