I've got a 14' Zodiac with a wooden keel. I've owned the boat for about 10 years and it's always had a 40 HP Suzuki on it. Depending on which prop I'm using it will run 25 - 30 MPH. The boat itself is rated to take up to a 50 HP. When it was just me and my wife this was a fun combo for taking out in the puget sound.
Now I've got a two year old now and I'd like to put a smaller four stroke on the boat. 10 - 20 MPH would be plenty fast. Reliability, easy to start, and quite operation are big reasons to downsize the motor.
I'm looking at the hondas and yamahas primarily. So in terms of which motor to get I was thinking about something a small as 9.9 HP and as big as maybe 20 HP. The current boat/motor is only worth about $3000, so I don't want to spend the money on a 25/30/40 HP motor, and I don't really need that kind of speed these days anyway.
I suppose the 20 HP would probably be best, but would I be happy with the 9.9? The one advantage to the 9.9 is that when I one day get a bigger boat I could use it as a kicker.
Here are some pictures of the current setup:
Now I've got a two year old now and I'd like to put a smaller four stroke on the boat. 10 - 20 MPH would be plenty fast. Reliability, easy to start, and quite operation are big reasons to downsize the motor.
I'm looking at the hondas and yamahas primarily. So in terms of which motor to get I was thinking about something a small as 9.9 HP and as big as maybe 20 HP. The current boat/motor is only worth about $3000, so I don't want to spend the money on a 25/30/40 HP motor, and I don't really need that kind of speed these days anyway.
I suppose the 20 HP would probably be best, but would I be happy with the 9.9? The one advantage to the 9.9 is that when I one day get a bigger boat I could use it as a kicker.
Here are some pictures of the current setup:
