We have done a lot of reading online and review of others YouTube videos to find that most sailboats of this size do not need an engine much more than 5-6 horse power.
What we experienced when we took our boat out the first time was 5 HP is the bare minimum to move us through the water.
We decided the biggest issue was the water currents. We are trying to learn to sail in the Winyah Bay in the Georgetown harbor near Charleston SC. This area is affected by a river, the inner-coastal water way and ocean tides.
Winyah Bay is amazing, we have already seen Dolphins and Bald Eagles as well as other cool sights of nature but the currents are crazy and from many different directions, sometimes conflicting (the river running down stream and the tide coming in).
We needed a motor that could move us with certainty through the water.
We looked up the transom specifications and all we could find was our boat could not handle more than 10 horse power. This of course did not really specify weight so we needed to be conscience of this as newer 4 stroke motors often weigh more then older 2 stroke motors.
We did a lot of homework and looked at many different vendors and eventually found Bass Pro Shops had the best price on a decent motor.
We also found Bass Pro gift cards at Sams Club for 75.00 worth of gift cards we paid about 72.00. For a 2300.00 engine this really added up to a lot of savings.
Heres were this gets interesting.
Becky bought every gift card in our Sams Club - about 80 of them which wasn't enough to cover the whole purchase but its all they had.
We went to the Bass Pro Shop and talked to the sales rep. I told him what I needed and he knew I meant business, (I guess he could see it in my eyes). He had the paper work drawn up, the title registration filed and the motor uncrated and running before he asked how I was going to pay.
"Gift Card ssssss" I said as I pulled out a zip lock bag from my cargo shorts pocket full of gift cards. "Oh!" he said.
He starred blankly for a moment and I started to worry that he was not going be be able to accept this form of payment. Then he said "Well, I better get started on these" and he went to the back of the store to work on it. I felt a little bad at first but then I noticed several other employees coming from his direction and they all seemed to be smiling and looking at us.
I think every employee in the store knew what I had done within about 3 minutes.
We saved about 90.00. Worth it!!
They were great sports about everything! They gave me a complete tutorial on the engine and instructions on the break in period.
As you can see in the picture we bought a Mercury 9.9 HP 4 stroke with a long shaft.
We have had it on the water once already and it really makes a big difference!
Very Happy!!