If you are one of those purists who consider an outboard should be about the size you would use to whip a small sponge you need not apply.

What I am talking about here is the fitting of an outboard big enough to be a big part of your daily boating life.That is a motor you can choose to motor on alone, or motorsail using your jibs and the motor on low throttle settings.

I am also talking about a motor that is big enough to be of some use if you have to claw off a lee shore or make the bar in some big stuff.

In the good old days they used to call this sort of yacht an auxiliary. Not enough balls to be a motor sailer and too much sail to be a launch. Auxiliary can also be defined as having just the right sort of choices to suit your mood and needs on the day.

The Yamaha 9.9 four stroke used to be the outboard of choice for this job especially with its 10 to 12am alternator for charging your electrics up big time.

But this Yammy has gone on steroids of late and is now the 15hp motor with a different carb and bottom end. The engine cover has bulged somewhat and you now have a motor that shows its presence big time. It also pans out at nearly a 100lb.

So its time to look for an alternative and I am sorry I cannot come up with one as I have not done the research. But it figures that a 15hp two stroke with a short leg and no remotes could be the answer.

You can put your motor on one of those up and down brackets and watch it go up and down miles from the transom for the rest of your life. Raising the sucker is no mean feat and I mean your feet are seldom on solid boat while you are doing it. Report for traction duty on completion of sailing.

I opt for the half well. That is a fairly shallow well built into the transom with the outboard bolted onto the transom itself. You can click the release and pop the outboard into its home with no effort at all. But there is a downside. You do not get the water flow over the rudder until the way is really on the boat. You also have a potential problem that the rudder is going to hit the prop at a rudder angle that is not really that extreme.

I hate the thought of taking up cockpit space with an outboard well and I have yet to meet somebody who had one who was happy either. But it strikes me that there is a compromise. That is especially so because your outboard tank is taking up some floor space in that corner.

I reason that you could bring the outboard inboard a way with a slot out through the bottom for the leg. It would not quite be a full in cockpit box but would certainly be buried with most of the motor inside the transom. Such an arrangement would mean being able to use a short leg motor which is a cost saving too.

I have remotes on my present motor and I can tell you apart from those times when I am motoring they are a pain. I am pondering on building a recess in the cockpit side to get them out of the bloody way. Its also hard to get enough cable distance so that the motor can turn a little for those tight spots. Once more if I had my druthers I would rather have the conventional tiller control on the motor.

I am sure the boat would benefit from having the weight further in from the ends too. I know this drawing is not very explanatory but this is one of those jobs where you take your boat drawing and a scaled outline of the outboard [scan a photo out of a catalogue and use Photoshop to rotate it around the axis of the outboard mounting bolt]. Play around with it for a while and then start pulling off some measurements before heading for the boat to see how much work it is going to be to make it happen.

Remember a boat is just a collection of boxes with the appropriate ones also being watertight. I have put outboard wells in quite a few boats and I can assure you it is not rocket science. Well that is apart from getting it just right so you don't have to live with an outboard in your life.

Oh on the subject of that petrol tank. You might be able to come up with something where the outboard tank actually sat in the top of the outboard well.

But please do not ever consider boxing in your outboard. History has shown they hate that and will let you know via your wallet.

Oh yes if you have the readys to fit a diesel engine I wonder why you read this far. I will never have enough money to do that and my engine experts reckon on a boat this size an outboard is a far easier and more efficiently maintained choice anyway.