I've seen a few you tube videos of this and I think it could work pretty well and the weight to torque ratio would be decent compared to a small outboard. A weedwacker could double as a small outboard for a dinghy couldn't it? It seems it wouldn't be hard to retrofit that bottom unit with a prop and away we go. I'm sure being in California you'd have a game warden or the lake police on your *** quicker than you can blink but other states and some parts of northern california this could be aviable solution.