I must say that my E Tec Evinrude motor has been a bit of a revelation. I guess everyone has heard the message on the latest generation two stroke outboard technology. If anything the claims just sound too good to be true - quieter than a four stroke - less moving parts than a four stroke, so lighter for a given horsepower. Great fuel efficiency.

Less emissions than a four stroke, hence a clean smelling environmentally friendly engine. And there is one thing that hasn't changed with a two stroke - the extra power. As a bit of a clincher these E Tecs don't even need a service for three years.

I'm certainly no outboard mechanic and my needs with an outboard motor are simple - I want it to start first turn of the key - I want it to be quiet so I can travel without an irritating whine in my ears - I want it to get me there and back, preferably quickly - and I don't want to spend time and money pissing around with servicing when I could be fishing.

I guess it is early days yet but my E Tec starts every time I turn the key - and I mean instantly - it is just uncannily quiet for a big motor - it has incredible performance and torque that suits my high performance boat to a tee - and it is good on juice.

I guess we live in rapidly changing times - wooden aeroplanes were good not so long ago - add some cutting edge technology and now we fly aluminium and carbon fibre marvels into space. Two strokes were once noisy, smelly gas guzzlers - add some technology to iron out the bugs and now they just might be the fastest, cleanest, most fuel efficient outboards on the planet.