I think for most price is a big issue. To most weekend warriors a middle of the road outboard is good enough……till it isn’t.

 

It’s what the dealerships sold them with originally. The vast majority of new boats come with what most of us would consider to be under powered. Easy upsell on anyone that knows what they want and have fished a similar package before.

 

I have a 20 ft with a 150HP on it. Enough power without losing milage. Rated for 200hp that would only get me maybe 5mph on the top end. Especially while I never really go WOT, so if I don't use it now, why spend the money and add the weight for something I won't use?

 

It’s unnecessary in many cases. My Seahawk is rated for 350, I have 250 on it. 200 would push it fine but would lack the low end grunt I want in rough water. A 350? Put that 10 grand in your electronics.

 

I am also an avid boat shopping enthusiast, and I see the same thing with open boats. The cost difference in the class you posted (90-150hp) is negligible enough that it doesn’t make sense to go lower than max hp given the total cost of the vessel. I see several boats for sale with 60hp hanging off the back that are rated above 100hp too. Another curiosity is that I don’t see too many of those motors under 100hp up for sale used. Leads me to believe that people who decide that their boat is underpowered would rather sell the package than upgrade the power 🤷‍♂️

 

When I was in the market last year I seen the same stuff.

There was one guy with a 20' open sled that had a 40!!!hp JET on the back.

Why would you even buy it like that? I get people are on budgets and all - but at some point a choice has to be made... if you're really pushing your budget why not downsize the boat too? Having a boat is better than having no boat(if youre in the market for one anyway).

I contacted him thinking he might come down on the price enough for it to make sense to repower it but he wouldn't - likely because he still owed the bank what he was asking.

 

How fast do you need to go or do you need HP for bar crossings? How many people or gear are you going to carry on any given day? How much money do you have to spend? The answer to every question has a trade-off with it whether it be initial cost, maintenance, speed, fuel use torque, weight, etc.

Something as simple like moving from 115 to 150 HP is a big change in cost, weight, fuel usage, etc as they're different engine blocks with different displacements.

What is the perfect combination of factors? Every boat buyer has a different answer and max HP may not be the right or wrong choice.

 

Cost is the biggest factor. Same thing goes for underwhelming trailers. One axle is cheaper than two, but is it the right choice?

As you can see even from some of the posts here, expectations/standards vary between boat owners. Some people are happy with "good enough," others want every hp they can put on the back of their boat.

Nothing sucks more than an underpowered boat, but there are plenty of them out there.

 

In my experience, less than max HP certainly doesn't automatically equate to "underpowered." We sell boats that are rated to 250, where a 150 is already what I would consider a surplus of power for the waters we commonly fish. The 150 would toss you around if you gave it too much throttle out of the hole and it would push the boat 40+ MPH when going around 30MPH is a lot more realistic/common speed.

With most manufacturers, the price difference between a 90 and a 115 is pretty minimal because they are on the same powerhead. So maybe $1000. However, jumping between powerheads (like to a 150) can be $5000. For lots of customers, that money is better spent on other upgrades. Because, unless you are tuna fishing or pulling a skier, the vast majority of users don't need an aluminum boat that goes 50MPH.

Even as someone that would make more money if everyone put max HP on their boats, I don't always support the notion that you should pay the extra money, burn the extra fuel and have the higher maintenance costs related to maxing out the boat on every model/combination. In many categories of boats, max HP would be significant overkill. There are definitely boats/applications where maxing out the HP makes a lot of sense. But I would say 1/3rd or maybe even less of situations is probably pretty accurate.

 

In my experience, as a habitual ad surfer and purchaser, it seems like on the older boats its possibly what came up as a replacement (used) when they needed one. I'm fairly confident my current sled did not come with the outboard it has right now from the factory.

 

I bought my boat new with a 60hp outboard. 70hp was max for the hull.

To get the extra 10hp I'd have to go with another motor manufacturer which would have cost an extra few thousand, the motor would be 40lbs heavier AND the 60hp was already mounted.

For me it was a mixture of lazy, cheap and not wanting the weight to power trade off

 

There are a lot of disadvantages to max power outboards on a boat. They're heavy, costly, and use more fuel. On our waters, whether ocean or even the Columbia, you'll seldom be able to use that power. You'll have to slow down due to the chop. It isn't good for big motors to run at low power all the time, which is what you will do if you're on any kind of rough water.

There's no need to go 45 mph on our waters. I actually count max power as either neutral, or a strike against a used boat.

The idea of max power is, of course, promoted by motor manufacturers, and driven by profit. It is a great triumph of their marketing efforts that max power has become not only fashionable, but has become conventional wisdom.

A boat burdened with a very heavy motor can be stern heavy and generally cranky. The same boat with a lighter motor might be perky, responsive and a joy to operate.

 

Yeah that. Common sense

 

"Max HP" rating is a Coast Guard requirement based on a 1971 law intended to prevent knuckleheads from killing themselves (or their families) by putting too much weight on the transom of their boat, or so much HP that its handling becomes dangerous. The formula is based on hull length, transom width, and hull shape. It has nothing to do with "ideal power" or how a given boat will perform with a given make/model of motor. It certainly doesn't tell you anything about how one 150 hp motor will perform against another, or whether one 150 is a hot rodded 115 and the other is a de-tuned 200. It also doesn't tell you anything about 4 cylinders vs. v6's, how much a given motor weighs and whether that might hurt the handling/safety of a hull, 2 stroke vs. 4 stroke., etc... It also doesn't tell you whether the motor is propped correctly for the hull (the single biggest factor in how it will perform.)

It also doesn't tell you whether the $$ upgrade between two motors is worth it (the 2.8 liter Yamaha 150 and 2.8 liter Yamaha 200 are the same motor... the 200 has higher compression and different throttle mapping, and produces more power at the top of the RPM range... how useful is that in the PNW?) Personally, I'd call up the manufacturer of a given hull, tell them how you intend to use it, and ask them what they recommend rigging it with. I did that with my current Defiance, and the owner of the company pointed out their 25' hull was designed with twin Yamaha 150's in mind. I could have spent another 10-15k upgrading to 200's without any benefit to performance where I actually need it.

Guys get hung up on "MAX POWER!!11!!111!" for thew same reason some guys hunt blacktail deer with a 300 Winchester magnum, or some guys buy an $80,000 1 ton diesel pickup to tow a 4000# Hewescraft. It is a thing when it comes time to resell (because those guys tend to be willing to spend more $$ for max power), but it doesn't tell you where the right bang for the buck is for how you intend to use the boat.

 

To be fair- Coast Guard regulated HP restrictions end when boats are over 20' long (the same with foam requirements and passenger capacities). So the HP restrictions on any boats larger than 20' ARE the recommendations of the manufacturer. However, those maximums tend to be set with the limitations of the boat in mind- bigger engines than the listed max are more likely to cause damage to the transom or hull, propel the boat at unsafe speeds, cause it to be unbalanced, etc. Talking to the manufacturer or a dealership about your intended usage and expectations is definitely a good way to hone in on which engines are the right match for your needs.

 

My 115 Mercury Command Thrust prop pushes my 21 foot Willie faster than I want to go. I rarely use full throttle ever
Maybe on an Idaho lake occasionally but never in the salmon haunts.

 

Think my TJ is rated for 175, maybe 200, and it has a 140, many have 115. 140 sips the fuel, but has enough power for tuna runs with ice/fish. Maybe 3-4 days out of the year do I wish I had a 175? Sure, but its not a safety reason i would want it... so its not really worth the other 20+ days where I burn a lot less fuel and wouldn't utilize it. I wouldn't want to go down to a 115 for what I use mine for, but if you lived in the river or stayed close to shore most of the time, 115 would be plenty.

 

Smaller engines do not necessarily burn less fuel. If the engine has to be run at a high rpm out of its peak torque range, it is operating less efficiently and often requires more fuel to do so. Smaller engines like the 115s and 140s also run smaller propellers and that can contribute to less fuel economy as well, especially on marginally powered larger boats. Mercury figured that one out and came out with their 115 Command Thrust. Larger props (4.75 vs 4.25" gearcase diameter) load appropriate engines more efficiently. Back in the day we used to fish a 26OS with 150s and 24OS with 115s, the 24 was generally around 1.2mpg, the 26 usually over 1.5 or a little more. Too little power and too little traction for the 24. Bigger boat, more power, more fuel? Not so much.

As mentioned above, the correct, or most logical motor is not necessarily the largest available, the same goes for the smallest available. Large inboard diesel boats are powered to run at a load factor of 75% or so, they don't just toss the biggest motor they can in there. A small motor running at higher load factor will burn more fuel and it drastically reduces engine life. Propping these engines correctly is a very high priority for engine life and fuel economy. That sentiment isn't nearly as big of a priority for our fuel injected gasoline outboards, but they don't seem to catastrophically fail quite as easily when over propped, they just perform poorly and burn more fuel. Granted, inboard diesels and gasoline outboards aren't exactly apples to apples, but the same basic physics apply.

 

My 26 Duckworth O/S is rated for 500. I’ve never wished for more than the 300 that’s on it.

 

I have a flat bottom 18ft smoker craft
The coast guard plate says max horsepower 125 and 6 people?????
I have a 40 hp Mercury, with 3 adults and cooler plus dogs and gear , I can do 30 mph in calm water
What would 125 hp get me?
I can run for days on 10 gallons of gas

 

My cat is rated for twin 200s and that's what it has on it. I wouldn't want less but also wouldn't use more. Originally sold I think they came with 140s, that would be really underpowered. The 'more is better' crowd tends to have more money than common sense. The problem is, you won't know if your boat is powered right until you run it the way you normally would with a normal load on your most frequented waters - and have it properly proped. Changing it is too late without a stuffed wallet.

Best to ask current owners with comparable boats and useage for their input and go from there. All you really need is enough to get on place with a full load and run fast enough for normal conditions. That might be less than max.

 

It seems like newer boats have the push for and more power. You are starting to see 350's on 24' ocean pros and pacific pros. They worked great for years with 250's and 300's though now that 350's are readily available dealers are hanging them on these boats. Do they NEED the power? Probably not. I'm sure there's times it's nice. They do add a decent chunk of change to the boat when new and help with resale.

After having an under powered boat propping and dialing in the boat is much more important and less forgiving. We had a little 17' alumaweld with a 60, it was rated for a 90. The boat was terrifying in 2-3' chop and couldn't keep traction till we got the right prop on it.

Our current 24 offshore has a 250 tuned to 330hp on it. Before propping and tuning it was probably border line under powered. Now it works pretty well circling back to when not at max power dialing in the boat is much more important. It would be nice if it had twins for better traction in rough water though that's another debate. It would have been nice if the boat had twin 200's (max power) when we bought the boat used though it would have probably been out of our budget. There's only 1 time I can think we wanted to run faster while we were racing daylight. We'll load up the boat with 4 adults and gear for a week and have never really felt under powered or dangerous with the power we have.

 

I often wonder the exact opposite. I wonder why folks use such big heavy motors. I run a 200 Yamaha on my NRSH and it’s plenty. I know I could get away with less.

 

As a rule of thumb, having a motor of at least 80% of your max usually does just fine for the vast majority of needs, after that approaching the speed it will accomplish with additional HP doesn't improve things much and uses a bunch more fuel. It also saves 100 pounds or better transom weight that can be used to support a kicker install. Hull design can make a huge difference in power needs as well as the load you are carrying. The worldwide popularity of the panga proves that point.