wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

[zombierunner]

we are looking into getting the new hurricane fdgs201 ob w/ a 115hp 4stroke yamaha, wet weight of 3500lbs, dry 2400lbs - currently on special.
http://www.hurricaneboats.com/smokinghothurricane.html
im concerned that it wont be able to pull up my 195 lb hubby easily on a wakeboard or knee board

any thoughts?
we can upgrade the motor to a 150 for $2600 but we are already over budget at 24000 out the door as is...

thanks in advance

 

[Hairygary]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

This is a pretty heavy boat for a 115hp, It is important to consider how many people you are going to have in the boat.

I think you should have no problem pulling up a wakeboarder, but I do think you may have to add a couple things to do this properly. Optimal wakeboarding speed is between 18 and 22 MPH. This means your boat needs to plane out and hold plane in this speed range. I am almost willing to bet you will have to get a better prop to do this. A four or five blade stainless prop ($300 - $600 new) and drop down a pitch or two. You may also have to add smart tabs. Before dropping down a pitch you need to see where your RPM's are at wide open throttle, to determine what the correct new pitch should be. So I would test the boat first.

Im also willing to bet that top speed on this boat is in the upper 30's range if this is a concern of yours.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

Go buy a used one that's two or three years old, that will stay within your budget and let you have a larger motor. I would lose the otboard engine anyway for a deckboat, get the I/O.

 

[zombierunner]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

thx hairygary, i will read up on your advice...
the sales people keep telling me it will work,,,but,,,

haulnazz, we originally considered used but fear the upkeep. its exhausting hearing people ask us over and over again why we are getting a boat, its sooo expensive, they break down all the time, yadda yadda. we know we will keep the new engine super clean and for the most part trouble free. thats where we stand...

 

[zombierunner]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

and we are told over and over to get an outboard for sure.
i/o are expensive and hard to repair...

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

My point is that a 2 or 3 year old boat won't have had much time to get "dirty", and you can save 25% or more of the price of the new boat for any repairs. Repairs on a 2-3 year old boat would be extremely unlikely unless they just never did any maintenance whatsoever. We're not talking about 10-15 years of wear and tear. I'm still saying than even 150HP is going to be weak trying to push 3500lbs through the water. I wouldn't want less than 200HP, especially with 3-5 people on board trying to tow a skier/wakeboarder.

 

[coolguy147]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

make sure u check the max horse rating for the right hp

 

[zombierunner]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

thanks haulnazz, good points. we have been open to looking at boats a couple of years old, just havent found many in the under 20 range. my husband is really stuck on the roaming space this hurricane 'party barge' offers so it has limited our options.

coolguy, the max hp is 200, but i dont know what that really means to our situation. will be reading through this forum while we are on vaca next week to pick up some knowledge...

overall it looks as though my gut instinct is correct that 115 is a little small if we want to do any watersports...we would want to upgrade at least to a 150...

thx peeps

 

[rrhodes]

Re: wakeboarding and 20' deckboat w/115hp??

Buy the most HP you can afford up front. My 115hp 25' toon can pull a 200lb wake boarder, So I think you will be fine however for an extra 2k I would upgrade. It will cost a lot more to upgrade later.