I've been able to spend some time breaking in and running the new 6-HP Mercury/Tohatsu I got and it is a decent motor.
I got it new off Craigslist for $900 and the seller threw in a 3 gallon Moeller tank as well. I had to buy a new fuel line and an adapter and 2 connectors, one connector for the Mercury end and another for the OMC-adapted end.
The motor lights up easy enough. A few pulls cold with the choke on and once warm/hot, one pull, maybe 2.
F-N-R is a lever on the side.
The throttle is smooth and the friction of the twist can be adjusted by a thumbwheel underneath the tiller-arm which is nice as once I have it all the way tight, it stays in place for long runs/for cruise control but is not too tight when I need to go slow.
The steering friction control is also good. While I don't care about locking the engine in place as I'm not trolling, I don't want the engine going all willy-nilly if I ever need to take my hand off the tiller so at full-tightness, the engine stays put and is still easily turnable from side to side.
With only 1 person on board the small 12' MirroCraft, the boat gets out of the hole (it is a flat bottomed rowboat after all), and flies when up on plane. The motor still has maybe 3-4 hours on it at the most so it is still tight but once on plane and already going at a good clip skimming across the water, with 1/2 or more throttle left, the boat just seems like it screams at WOT.
We have had 4 adults and 1 toddler so;
250
170
160
30
60 motor
20 gas
So with about 600 lbs, while the boat did not fly anymore, it still moved ok for the load and all I'm doing anyway is going 1.7 miles up a saltwater bay to a beach and back which is a no-wake zone anyway.
With 2 POB and 1 toddler, the boat moves out.
