Motor Power

[lemon]

Howzit!

I have noticed recently that allot of 16 foot boats have smaller motors!like the Kosi 16 c/c, most have 40hp motors and 50,s the seacat 510 has 50,s etc, when I grew up our 16 foot had 70hp motors,it got on the plane with one engine and had plenty power! Times have changed and motors are expensive! so do we actually need bigger motors? I agree that more is better but do we have to plane on one motor!

what do you guys think?

 

[sven]

With my minimal knowledge of boating, only having used mine at Kosi so far and not yet in the sea i dont reckon it is necessary to plane on 1 mototr unless one is beach launching. I would think if one motor had a fault and the sea is hectic to come back through surf that extra power of a bigger motor would always be beneficial.

Maybe also that smaller engines use less fuel and with the price of petrol to increase again, it could be a budget thing???

 

[lemon]

yes that was the thinking behind having bigger motors, I have had to beach a few times with one motor! Now days the motors are reliable and is it worth spending so much more money for that reason!!A cat for example can be beach with one motor that is under powered just by surfing it through the surf or any craft can approach the back line let the drogue anchor out and be pushed in that way!!

 

[Rory]

when you boat starts to surf on the way in you have problems if you cant power your way foward you may just start going side ways then over. and this can happen on a rather small wave

 

[lemon]

Yes that does happen and will happen every time with a mono! A couple years ago we put a cat to the test, the surf was about 1.5m. we came in with one motor idling and one in gear at half throttle, put two guys at the back near the motors one on the center hatch and myself driving, we let a wave pick the boat up from behind! before the wave actually broke the boat started surfing, I was able to keep the boat straight with the steering, we picked up enough speed from the wave to get the boat on the plane at half throttle! This was just one of the manoeuvres we did with the boat.

My point being, do we have to have bigger motors when boats like the cats can be so forgiving!

 

[Rory]

yes

 

[Cpt. Hook]

lemon wrote:

Howzit!

I have noticed recently that allot of 16 foot boats have smaller motors!like the Kosi 16 c/c, most have 40hp motors and 50,s the seacat 510 has 50,s etc, when I grew up our 16 foot had 70hp motors,it got on the plane with one engine and had plenty power! Times have changed and motors are expensive! so do we actually need bigger motors? I agree that more is better but do we have to plane on one motor!

what do you guys think?

There is no substitute for power, you MUST be able to plane on one motor, you life can depend on it.

For surf launching you need the hole shot to get out, and if 1 motor fails you must be able to plane, when coming back through the surf and one motor fails you need to keep on the back of the wave in beacuse if the one behind gets you it will turn you over.

For out at sea if one motor fails on a nice day you will have a long ride home, on a bad day you may not get home if you get a head on sea or wind you may only be able to hold position and eventually run out of fuel, and if it gets ugly in a following se then you have serious problems.

For me there is no way I will have a boat that cannot plane on 1 motor, and it must do that even if both motors are in the water and with out moving crew around.

I can also tell you that an accident can happen so easy and so fast, you need POWER to get out.