After my fun Friday...I decided to opt for a kicker motor.
We were just under 5 miles offshore when the main outboard died. Felt like a fuel issue. Looked at the full 6 gallon plastic tank, it was vacuumed badly. Okay, no problem, lets switch caps from the other matching 6 gallon tank (that currently only had a gallon or two of fuel in it). Made no difference. Hmmm...let's try switching tanks. Fired right up. Of course with that little fuel left we had no option but to run back into shore. Once there we funneled the gas from the non-functioning tank into the functioning tank and then rain the rest of the day no problems.
When I got home, I tore the bad tank apart and found the ethanol had eaten the fuel pickup hose off and it was sitting detached in the bottom of the tank. As soon as the fuel level got below the nipple that the pickup was supposed to attach to, we essentially ran out of gas with a nearly full tank.
So...I've been eyeballing a little 1991 8hp oil injected Suzuki. I probably overpaid at $450, but I wanted to go either oil injection or four stroke so I didn't have to mix gas. My main outboard is oil injected, and eventually I'd like to put a T in the 3/8" mainline, and then adapt it down to the 1/4" size that this engine has so I can use either outboard off the same set of tanks.
