Is it big enough?

[Clint r]

I'm sure it's been asked a thousand times before but, I'm going to look at a Honda ten horse kicker tomorrow. The guy also has a quite a bit newer Yamaha 6 horse. My boats 17.5' and pretty wide. The Honda weighs in at right around a hundred lbs and the Yammie comes in around 60. Think a 6hp has enough poop to push my boat around in the currents off the WCVI?

 

[trophywife]

a 6hp will do fine.. i ran a 6hp yam with 8hp prop... more push!! this was on the ex trophy wife.. 21'02"

 

[SpringVelocity]

I ran a t8 on mine and it was a foot smaller... I would go more like a 9.9 myself...

 

[Bait&Sea]

I've got an 18' long 7'6" beam FGlass, My kicker is an older (yr 2000) 9.9Bigfoot and it works well and steers great with the high thrust prop, but I wouldnt want any less when a fish runs hard to the boat I can use all shes got, as well as the tides that rip when fishing the east side of Van Island definatley are easier to manage with more thrust. Hull speed is hull speed as talked about in other threads (in the event you lose your main)

 

[dougthefisher]

I always go bigger. having had to run in on my kicker a couple times I found bigger is better. I think you would have a hard time getting anywhere with an 8hp on a 21 ft boat going into wind and tide.

 

[Rum Buddies]

plus if you run a small kicker you need to rev it up higher to get going, meaning it's louder.

I'd rather have a 9.9 putting along vs. a 6hp going full bore.

 

[Clint r]

Yeah. I thought bigger would be better too. The weight is starting to add up at the back of the boat and I thought maybe the 6hp would save me a few pounds but I like the thought of having more power than I need. I ran a 7.5 on my other boat. Quite a bit narrower and a little shorter than the new one. It pushed that one fine but at a constant 1/2 throttle or more depending on wind and waves. A 6 might drink the fuel if I had to run it at high revs.

 

[finaddict]

I run an 8 horse Honda high thrust on the back of my 5000 lb. striper. It has more WCVI hours than the 250 yamaha by a factor of about 6-1. A 6 h.p. will move your 17 1/2 footer no problem. save the weight.

 

[bigbruce]

I'm with Finaddict - save the weight. Neither motor is going to get your boat anywhere near it's hull speed, and the 6 should troll along nicely. I have a 9.9 on my Striper and it works great. I'd think a 6 on a 17.5 would work just fine.

 

[finaddict]

Clint - Talk to the guy with the motors and ask to trial one of the 6's on your boat. If you can get the boat speed to 4.25 mph in windy conditions, you have overachieved hull-speed which is as fast as you can get it without planing or pushing a fuel-gobbling bow wave. I suspect you will have no issue with a 6.

 

[Clint r]

I'm off to check it out this morning. I'm leaning towards the 6 just because its newer and also because of the weight savings. I only fish the ocean two weeks a year and can live with having to max out a smaller motor if I have too. The rest of my fishing time is spent in fresh water with little or no current. If I needed too I guess I could use the main if if the tides were to much for the little motor. I'll know more once I have a look.

 

[Clint r]

How do you come up with 4.25 mph for hull speed? Is there a formula to figure it out?

 

[finaddict]

Hull speed is the square root of the water line length of your boat. It would actually be around 4.1833 nautical miles per hour, which is closer to 4.814 mph (knots x1.15078 = mph), so if you can get 5 mph out of it you are over hull-speed.

I used your LOA (length overall) as 17 1/2 feet, but your LWL (length at water line) is likely less.

 

[Clint r]

Thanks for that. Learn something new every day. Now I'll be measuring all my buddies boats. Ha. Also learned buddies Yamaha is a two stroke. And his Honda is old and needs an impeller. Ahh live and learn. Reminds me of the time I went to look at a rust free truck. All the rust had fallen out and I could see the ground trough the floor.

 

[Clint r]

Took the plunge and bought this Rick dudes 6hp yammie. Took it out in a tinnie on Woods lake for a rip and it runs great all through the RPM range except for a slight stumble at the lowest idle but this was its first trip this year. Got some new plugs and I'm running a batch of sea foam through it right now. First motor I've had with a 100/1 mix. I like that. And it's pretty quiet. I can't hear anyway so that's not an issue for me. Low smoke is though. Anyway here's a picture of it running in a barrel.

 

[Clint r]

$650.00 no tank or hose. Cost me another $50 for all the fittings to standardize both motors to Johnson tanks.

 

[Tightlines22]

Good going. That will be enough motor for you for most situations!