One of the new products making its debut at the Miami
International Boat Show is neither large nor splashy, but it could turn
out to be a game-changer in the marine outboard engine industry.
Lehr
Inc. — a Southern California company known primarily as a maker of
environmentally friendly lawn care equipment — introduces the world’s
first production propane-powered outboards in 2.5- and 5-horsepower
models. (click below to read more)
Priced at about $1,000 for the 2.5-horsepower
model and $1,600 for the 5-horsepower, the new Lehr engines are touted
as greener, cheaper and easier to maintain than their four-stroke,
gasoline-powered cousins.
“Propane is domestically produced. It’s cheaper. It’s not a marine
pollutant. It can’t get into the water. It produces a small amount of
hydrocarbon compared to gasoline. It doesn’t deplete the ozone,” Lehr
founder captain Bernardo Herzer said. “They [the engines] run on less
fuel. They will last longer. You won’t need to replace them as often.”
And unlike ethanol, Herzer said, propane won’t wreak havoc on marine fuel lines and other components.
Herzer
said a pound of propane burns at about the same rate as a gallon of
gasoline but can be bought as cheaply as $2 per pound — compared to
$3.50 and up for a gallon of regular gasoline. A propane canister can be
secured in the engine cowling or it can be dispensed from a larger tank
through a hose just like a propane-fueled barbecue grill. Many of the
engine components are the same as regular carbureted outboards, but the
Lehr has a patented fuel system technology.
A couple of weeks
before the boat show, Louis Diaz of Donovan Marine in Miami — a
distributor of the Lehr outboard — along with Glenn Gillette, president
of Lifeline Inflatables in North Miami, took the 5-horsepower model out
for a test run in Biscayne Bay. Their test boat was a nine-foot AB rigid
inflatable.
But before they could depart, Diaz had to purchase a
container of Coleman propane fuel from Crook & Crook because the
Lehr refillable canister was missing from the factory shipment. Diaz
simply screwed it into the fitting in the cowling, and Gillette pulled
the starter cord.
The first couple tries, the engine coughed, but
on the fourth try, it turned over — emitting a faint scent of propane
and sounding very much like a lawn mower.
Gillette got it up to
about 7 knots at top throttle, and it was noisier than a comparable
four-stroke outboard. But it never sputtered, and he said it had the
same feel as a normal engine that size.
Run times range from 30 minutes to more than three hours, depending on speed, weight and ocean conditions.
If
the smaller models catch on for yacht tenders and sailboat dinghies,
Lehr is expected to roll out larger models in 9.9- and 20-horsepower
later this year. 
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