LARGER (3HP) OUTBOARD EQUIVALENTS
Price €2,200 + VAT. £2,185
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
remigo.eu or silentyachting.com
Outboard motors have looked much the same since their first inception, using a top-heavy motor with a fuel tank and a long stem leading to a propellor and a cooling water inlet.
Even with the advent of electrical motors, manufacturers stuck with a similar familiar profile. Until, that is, two innovative motors arrived on the market, in the French Temo (previous page) and now this Remigo from Slovenia, writes Fox Morgan.
They realised that electricity storage can be any shape you like and can be packed into a watertight housing of your choice – the shape Remigo chose was essentially a dinghy rudder. The mount is equally smart, with a simple pin and latch utilised in the dual purpose handle.
We used a Highfield aluminium rib as our test boat, which is a little heavy for a small 1kW motor like this. The RemigoOne outboard provides around 3hp but it feels so much more finely responsive than any petrol powered unit I’ve used. At half power we could motor up and down Southampton Water to and from my mooring for about 6 hours. At full power (roughly 5 knots) we’d get about an hour out of it, or about 5 miles.
IN USE
In use the motor was highly intuitive and took precisely one push of the power button to feel entirely familiar with it. The controls are all located on top and there’s no twist grip, keeping moving parts to a minimum. However, which button you’ve actually pressed will be unknown unless you look at what you’re pressing, so some form of touch texture would be beneficial.
Activating reverse was fast: at the press of both buttons together, we could stop and reverse the motor in two seconds. Turning off the power and using the outboard as a passive rudder was immensely satisfying. It allowed really smooth control for bringing the dinghy alon
