I think I'm gonna buy a 12' Frontier NuCanoe here in the next day or two. If I were a man of means (like some of you guys
) I'd spring for one of these and a 520watt-hour battery with solar charger. 'Bout $3400.00 out the door, but would be awesome for a Kayak or small canoe.
http://www.torqeedosouthwest.com/category/torqeedo/ultralight/ Rob - you don't have to buy that one for a boat your size. The self-contained one will do it for under 2k...
http://www.torqeedosouthwest.com/product/torqeedo-travel-1003/I would wait on that Nu-Canoe. There are better boats in that size and price range.
I don't know what the fuss is about the Tohatsu motors. I have a 3.5 hp one on my 1500 lb 20' sailboat, and it pushes it around at hull speed just fine at about half-throttle. It isn't as smooth and quiet as a Honda, but it isn't obnoxious either. It starts right up and idles indefinitely (near as I can tell) without any problems. The biggest problem yo might have with one on a canoe is that you spin the motor around to reverse it - but I don't know that the others that size are any different.
If I were you, I would go with an electric trolling motor, but you don't have to use an RV battery. You can get the smaller deep-cycle battery made for electric wheelchairs, and it won't be near as heavy or bulky (or costly). Buy two and you can have a spare and spread the weight out.
