On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 02:44:06 GMT, "Will" wrote:

Years ago I had a 14 ft Lowe Lake
Jon
with a 10 hp Mercury, which was easily able to put the boat up on plane.
My
old boat was rated at 15 hp maximum (as I recall).

Was curious if I could get along okay with a lighter, less powerful
engine.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has experience with
this.
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The real question is what size motor are you going to be happy with
over the long term. It's been my experience that you can always
throttle back on a motor that's a bit bigger than needed, but you
can't add horses that aren't there. A lot depends on how much weight
you put in the boat and what your expectations are. If you want to be
able to zip around on a fast, smooth plane with a couple of people in
the boat, go for the maximum horsepower. You can always cut back on
the power when you're out by yourself.