Rated engine HP>?

Question

Hello

A boat I am looking at is rated from 115-140hp. I conveniently enough have a 90hp I can fit. Will this be suitable? I have seen a 6.4Metre with a 90hp but it did not have a deep hull to plow through the water. The boat I am looking at is a 5.5Metre half cabin, rated from 115-140. Please let us know if you have a 5.5metre boat with a 90hp and how it goes.

Thankyou

Answer 1

I have no doubt that the 90 would work for you.  You may not be happy with the resulting performance of the boat over time however.  Lots of dealerships in the states offer lower horsepower engines for their boats, to keep the cost down.  The problem is when the new boat owners can't get the boat up to speed or they have engine problems relating to running the engine at higher RPMs in order to acheive satisfactory performance., they usually become quite upset.   These folks usually get out of boating because they "bought cheap" or were inadequately advised as to proper horsepower for their given vessel.  That being said use the 90 but consider a larger motor in the near future or just settle for lower performance of your boat.  I hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

Would depend heavily on the weight and the hull...

I had a 17.5 ft aluminum bay boat that a 90 would push it to 48mph and 0-30 in under 9 seconds.  

Your boat is obviously heavier and the question would be how long it would take to get on plane, trim tabs might help.

Answer 3

All depends on what you want to use the boat for.If you are planning to only go fishing and don't much care how fast you get there or you just troll with it you MAY find that you have enough power,but if you think that skiing is what you will be doing you will be very disappointed with the boats performance.

  You should consider that later you may want to sell or trade your package,and you will find that a under powered boat is very hard to sell.No-one wants to buy a package to just turn around an have to re-power it.

Think long and hard before you power your boat in this manner.