houseboat repower

[67lincoln]

Recently I bought a "low hours" 80 hp Yamaha outboard with a 1966 28' houseboat "attached" for $3800. After I cruised it home down the Chesapeake and looked at it closer did I realize what a steal I had purchased. The engine is perfect and the boat is sound. We cleaned it up, painted it turquoise and pink, added a lava lamp and love beads in the doorways to compliment its period correct orange shag carpeting, and can't decide whether to name it "Old And In The Way" or "Love Shack". In 1966 this boat was originally outfitted with twin Johnson 70hp motors (I have most of the original "time capsule" manuals/documents) but the owners downsized it to the single yamaha as they used it only to run their grandkids down the creek and back. Now, I started out boating and still own my 1978 Donzi Classic 2+3/Holman Moody 351, so if you'll excuse the pun, I'm a "little out of my waters" on this vessel. Did these things really get up on plane and go? Obviously the single 85 can't do that, but am I correct in assuming that adding a second 85 will? (It still has its original twin transom plates on it; the owners just mounted the 85 in the middle.) Or should I just go to a larger single outboard, and if I did what size? 2 stroke or 4 stroke? Fuel economy is also a consideration. Is a single big 4 stroke like a honda 225 over the top? I realize this is no Donzi, but the displacement speed it is currently limited to (6-10 knots) is just too slow! Any thoughts/ideas? Thanks!

 

[ehenry]

Re: houseboat repower

LOVE SHACK ! ! !

 

[JB]

Re: houseboat repower

What does the boat weigh? What sort of hull does it have?<br /><br />Just off the top of my head that boat was not built to plane, even with 225hp.

 

[67lincoln]

Re: houseboat repower

I have no idea what it weighs. It is 28' with maybe 10' beam. It has a chine-less fiberglass hull and looks flat as anything. I'd be surprised if it drafts much over 1 ft. It is a "pre-1972" as far as the Coast Guard and the State of Virginia is concerned so there is little documentation required; they don't even require a holding tank for the head by my understanding! A friend of mine owns/restored a 32' houseboat and he repowered it with twin 150 2 strokes and says it will go 25 knots! He also said the trick was "to get it over the bow wave", and that (obviously) required more torque than hp. He also said that he spent close to $20k repowering and that if he had it all to do over again he wouldn't. I hastened to point out to him that it looked brand new, and i mean brand new! His boat also has ac, a full galley, head, furnishings, etc., resulting in greater weight. Mine is pretty bare-bones by comparison. We will use it to cruise the lower Rappahannock, occassionally nosing out onto the bay when the weather/forecast allows. I tried to search the internet for "Drifter-28" but it seems the manufacturer went out of business. Anyway, we put a big stereo in it w/xm radio and we listen to alot of party music (anything fron sinatra to (you might have guessed) psychodelic lava lamp music. Between this fine vessel and our reconditioned 28" pontoon boat, many a summer evening is spent under the Northern Neck stars "laughing at the moon". But I digress; It takes us just a little too long to get to some of our favorite beaches, shoals, and crab bars for my liking. So I guess I'm going to search for another Yamaha 80 to bring this boat back to original spec and see what happens. The idea of a single 4 stroke 225 is tempting for simplicity/economy/torque/etc.; unless anyone has a better idea. Understand this! It works fine for what we do with it. Excuse me if I'm gloating but I've seen many captains solo with mega-buck vessels scratching their heads ruefully when they see us: disco mirror ball aglow, dancing with bikini clad beauties a-la Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, in a pink/turquoise houseboat that cost next to nothing! We have had the pontoon boat in Wash., D.C. on and off for years and the cigarette boat guys can't keep up! Kids, dogs, music, sun, crabbing, etc., it all works!

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: houseboat repower

Lincoln,<br /><br />I'd stay with the Twins. There's a certain amount of safety and security built in when you have 2 motors. Just in case one fails, you have a back-up at hand...

 

[CFronzek]

Re: houseboat repower

If it's a planing hull, big motors will get you speed without high fuel consumption. If it isn't a planing hull driving it hard will suck a ton of gas and give you only modest speed for your trouble.<br />In general, displacement hulls will try to plane if enough HP is present but they can't climb out of the hole they sit in. When you drive a dispacement hull above hull speed it gets on the hill of the bow wave but will never pop up on top. So, if the boat runs with the bow pointing at the sky you probably have a displacement hull.<br />Of course, digging up some literature on this thing is a hundred times better than all my speculations.<br />A rule I read but can't vouch for is that every <br />1 mph over displacement hull speed requires twice as much HP as the previous 1 mph. If this is the case then clamping 500 HP to a displacement hull will get you some big speed numbers but you have to run the motors to death and gas consumption will be astronomical.

 

[jtexas]

Re: houseboat repower

But the really important questions: <br />1. A 28-inch pontoon - WOW! I bet the babes really are impressed!<br />2. If you're changing the name to "Love Shack" from something else, be aware of the name-changing ceremony owed to Poseidon. It's here on the forum somewhere, you should try searching for it.<br />3. Twin outboards look so much cooler than one big one. One big outboard, I mean.

 

[Solittle]

Re: houseboat repower

Even if you put enough power on the stern to plane, a houseboat usually does not have the structural strength to take any kind of pounding that you encounter due to wind, wakes or waves.

 

[chris andrews]

Re: houseboat repower

67Lincoln, I would be careful going with one large 4-stroke, such as the 225 of any make. The age of that boat, and the fact you have two mounting plates and not one, would cause concern to me. Remember the weight issue with one of those 225 outboards. ( 2 or 4-stroke for that matter) I would stick with two newer 70 hp on the back. ( or whatever the max. hp is for that boat) As well, you need to be careful of stability issues at speed with any pontoon. Anyhow, just my 2 cents. I want to go pick up some babes sometime on that thing ! Good luck!

 

[mjbrueck]

Re: houseboat repower

If it were my houseboat (and disco ball), I'd go with the biggest, flattest prop you can find for the Yamaha and enjoy cruising without worrying about what the first thing to fail on a 40 year old houseboat will be when you jump that first wake. If you want to repower, get something like a 50 or 60 hp bigfoot.<br /><br />If you don't have the patience, you can always run ahead with the Donzi and have your wife drive the houseboat to its destination.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: houseboat repower

efhenry,<br /><br />Love what you said about your best friend. He only knows to love you; no strings, no hidded agenda, and just keeps coming back for more; always forgiving you for what you do to him....but then there is that big slobbering tongue that he wants to use to give you a bath. Grin.<br /><br />Chuck,<br /><br />Couple of years ago we went fishing from Lafitte, LA. Operating out of there were shrimp and crab boats that did plane out, believe it or not. These were big boats, like 35 ft long, 12' beam, masts, trawls, cabins and all...made out of planked wood.<br /><br />Driven by a Detroit Diesel 2 cycle (can't miss that unique sound) they were a site to see. Never saw a shrimp boat plane, but these did. Seems it was so far from home to the shrimping grounds (and shallow) they had to figure a way to get out there. So they did.<br />Mark