Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

[bnurczyk]

My original thread went dead, so I?m trying again;
I am looking for input from anyone with 17 or 18? foot 1000 lbs or so (hull only weight) bass boat or fish and ski and has run a ?smaller? outboard. My total package weight with batteries, engine & trolling motor, 2 adults, gear, and a full tank of gas is around 2100 lbs.

I?m trying to get an idea how this thing will perform if I downsize a little based on others experience.

I?m a little leery of using the boat / engine / speed calculators I have found on the web mainly because I have read the newer engines HP ratings are calculated differently than in the 80?s, so I can?t come up with a fair ?constant? to accurately do a comparison.

I know I should just trade it for a nice mod-v SC jon for what I?m doing, but I restored her with my own two hands and I?m not ready to part with her yet.
All the info I can find on the boat is in my original thread pasted below.

Original post;
Repower help; How much engine do I really need?
Hi, I have an old 1983 Sea Sprite 1784 Fish-N-Ski by United marine. It currently has a 1989 Johnson GT150 that scoots it along quite well. I am thinking about repowering in the near future for a couple reasons;

1. Fussy starts when cold, this is a no choke, primer start engine. It gets a little harry when your fishing right along a rock bar and the wind kicks up. After being in this situation a few times I find a fuel injected engine appealing.

2. I?d like to fish skinner water, it sits real low in the back with this big of an engine, I?d also like to move the two trolling motor batteries up front to help with this but don?t really have the room.

So to sum it up I have a Fish-N-Ski, 17.17 feet long and weighs 935 (pounds dry), the beam is 85 inches, max ?rated? HP is 150. It has a bass boat style stepped hull.
How much motor do I really need for decent hole-shot and a comfortable cruising speed (with the 150 it?s too darn fast!).
To keep the weight down I was thinking of sticking with a 2-stroke (E-Tech) and downsizing to a 110 or even as small as a 90. I?ve been in heavier boats with smaller motors that do quite well. I don?t plan on pulling skiers, I just want to fish, but I don?t want to end up underpowered either.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Well the common formula says you want 70% or greater of the max rated HP for acceptable performance. I don't know that I'd go down to a 3 cylinder but a nice 90HP should do quite well for you.

 

[bnurczyk]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Thanks for the reply,
I did some digging, the lightest 90 2-stroke I can find is the E-tech. It is only 3 cyl's and weighs in at 320 lbs.
According to Iboats my old Johnson 150 is only 386 lbs, 66 lbs isn’t exactly the weight savings I was hoping for…….

 

[steelespike]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Check out the Evinrude Etec 60 tests 5 or 6 tests of boats 850 lbs to 1400lbs dry. Speeds 29 to 33. 240 lbs 80 less than the 90
146 less than the 150. It will feel like nothing is on the back.

 

[The_Kid]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Not an exact match to yours but a similar hull style so it might give you an idea about weight/HP/speed. My 18' Procraft fish-N-ski has a 91" beam, weighs around 1720# dry and the 115 Mariner adds another 350#. Fully loaded it somewhere around 2800 to 2900#s. It will run in the upper 30s to the low 40's with just me in the boat.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

I'm running a 90 triple 2 stroke on a 17' tin can rated for 130 and weighs about 900#, engine 300#. Couple of days ago was out with gear and 2 folks (total wt of #240) roughly and the most I could get out of it was 47 GPS....aw shucks. Grin.

A lot depends upon the design of the hull and prop matching when talking about performance with smaller engines. Surely smaller engines need less pitch to push the same load as a larger engine and results in a lower top speed.

I agree, that if you have a reasonable planing boat, with a reasonable load, in reasonable water (no 5' swells) and can endure 35 mph, you should have no problem with a 90. 35 you know is humming right along and you said that the boat was too fast as it is.

Other thing is, if you get a 90 looper like mine, they just sip gas.

HTH,

Mark

 

[crb478]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Several years ago I had a 16 1/2 Bass boat with a 150 Johnson on it. Trimmed out on flat water it would hit 70mph. The motor eventually blew and I sold the boat to a friend. He put a 70 hp Johnson on it and could hit 35mph. On that boat that was what I ususlly cruised at anyway especially if there was any chop to the water.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Several years ago I had a 16 1/2 Bass boat with a 150 Johnson on it. Trimmed out on flat water it would hit 70mph. The motor eventually blew and I sold the boat to a friend. He put a 70 hp Johnson on it and could hit 35mph. On that boat that was what I ususlly cruised at anyway especially if there was any chop to the water.

Was the bass boat a Skeeter "xxxx" (Wrangler)? Don't remember the name of the hull, but it was a 16+ ft very deep V, rated for 150 hp but this was a boat built and sold when the Arab oil crisis hit in the '70's. Buddy of mine showed up at work and when everyone got off work a lot of whiners went by the boat and P&M'd about how he could afford gas when they were having problems getting to work???????

Mark

 

[crb478]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

As a matter of fact it was a Skeeter, dont remember the model I believe it was a 76 or 78, but really can not remember for sure. It would flat out fly with the 150. I had one friend with a I/O spend about $6000.00 on performance parts for his 350 motor to be able to run about 1 mph faster. I guess he won, but it cost him.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

As a matter of fact it was a Skeeter, dont remember the model I believe it was a 76 or 78, but really can not remember for sure. It would flat out fly with the 150. I had one friend with a I/O spend about $6000.00 on performance parts for his 350 motor to be able to run about 1 mph faster. I guess he won, but it cost him.

Problem with the boat was that it was made to be a bullet, not a fishing platform and once you beat everyone to the honey hole, you had to hold a barf bag in one hand while trying to fish with the other.....rock-a-by-baby......

Mark

 

[bnurczyk]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

Thanks for the info and thanks to all who replied.
I’m thinking of going with the 90, it will keep me close to the 70% rule, and at around $1000 for every 10 hp or so it really starts making sense!

If a 90 will give me 40-45 at WOT I’ll be happy. 35-40mph is a nice comfortable cruise in my boat, once I get up to 45–50 my wife makes my left arm sore , just kidding of course. I’m also going to look harder at weight distribution; three 60 -70 lb batteries, 100 lbs of fuel, and the live well and it’s all in the rear end. This may have more of a factor that engine weight.

Once all the ice goes away I am going to work on the “cold start” procedures with the old Johnson, and maybe live with her for another summer (it’s actually a good strong motor), but if I can find someone with a low hour 90 Etech or Optimax I will go for it. I get so jealous when my brother just hits the key ONCE, throws it in gear and idles QUIETLY along……..

 

[allen6634]

Re: Anyone have a 17 - 18? bass boat with a 75 to 110 hp outboard?

i have a 1983 17' sprint it has a 88 spl johnson on it im not sure about the exact weight,but i know what it will do on the water ,my boat will run 45 mhp with a full tank and 4 passengers not to mention the fishing and camping gear.im very happy with my boats performance.