mike hinted at there not being
much of a difference b/w an 80HP outboard and a 140HP i/o in terms of
fuel consumption.....

Let's not take me too far out of context. I meant for your father's
purposes... motoring out to a fishing hole, setting the hook, and fishing.
For *your* purposes... cruising, pulling toys, etc, yeah, there'll be a
difference.

.now that we're on the bowrider train, it comes down to a 3.0L chrysler
versus the 5.0L chevy.....

I had an 18' Reinell bowrider powered with a 3.0L 190hp Merc. It was fast,
and had plenty of power to pull up a skiier or boarder. A small boat doesn't
need a huge powerplant. If you're looking at 22-23' boats, then the 5L is
the best way to go. It's always best to have a little power to spare, rather
than not enough. I would say as a rule of thumb, that anything less than 20'
is fine with a 3L, anything over 20' go with 5L.

Tell your dad that we fish off of our 23' bowrider all the time, and have
never had an issue. BTW, we catch fish like you do. g

--Mike

"Chris Larocque" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 09 May 2007 00:57:02 -0400, Chris Larocque
wrote:

after seeing one local for sale that turned out to have a messed up
hull, my father and I decided to buy a boat. we haven't come up to an
agreement on what kind, because honestly we don't know enough. we're
going half on the purchase price so it's all about compomise here.
(we're looking at 17-21' and from the mid80's to early 90's)

My intention is tubing and general pleasure craft-type activities. a
buddy of mine has a 22 or 23' Cobalt bowrider and having the 2 boats
riding around the lake tubing and cruising is what i'm after. I would
also like to fish with this boat. so for me, a 17-20' bowrider with a
Inboard/Outboard is a compromise.


My father on the other hand wants to fish with it. he says that he
wants to cruise with it too, but we can't seem to agree, as he shows
me ads for these boats I call fishing boats. they're mostly outboards
(in the 80ish HP range) and don't appear to be worth anything as
pleasure boats. they look something like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1994-...QQcmdZViewItem


they look to him like they would make pleasure boats, but to me they
look like dhingys.

when i explain to him that the dinky outboard motors won't cut it as
pleasure boats and boats like that lack a proper place to hook a line
for tubing and also lack a teak-wood deck for getting in and out the
boat easily, i get an answer such as:

1. you can hook a skiier up to the hooks for tying the boat up, or
even more funny, you can drill into the fiberglass on the back and
mount one. i don't even think i need to explain what's wrong with
that.

2. as for no deck, you can also mount one. one that hangs over the
stern and mounts inside. and not really a deck either, more or less a
ladder.

since we're going half in on it, I honestly think that the design of
the type of boat my father is looking for isn't what both of us are
looking for. i don't see it being a compromise.


what I keep showing my father is something along this line...

http://newhaven.craigslist.org/boa/325479229.html

he says the 305ci in there is too big, and will eat gas. (he also
thinks that the I/O motor setup adds undue maintence and problems)
that's why he likes those dinky little outbards. i agree with him that
they're a pretty large motor, but the leap from fishing boat to
bowrider adds considerable heft to the weight of the boat


so the basic things a

1. please tell my father that a little fishing boat won't cut it for
all-around pleasure boating. (i constantly try to batter it into his
head that you can fish a bowrider, but you can't ride a fishing boat)


2. please tell him that they don't make bowriders with outboard motors
so he's stuck with an I/O.

3. Please inform both of us about the different types of motors
available for these things... so far i've found the 3.0L chrylser
based mercruiser in newer ones, and the 5.0L Chevy 305 in some of the
older ones.

i know that those old boats are probably made mostly out of steel, and
that they weigh a LOT compared to newer models. add to that the added
weight of the outdrive setup, and barring any sort of huge weight
difference(as the boats get newer), my guess is gonna be that the 3.0L
is gonna come up short on power.

but i guess the most important question that needs answering is...
what kinda power does it actually take to watertube?

to be able to hold its own against bigger boats?

can the square stroke and good low-end torque of a 305 allow you to
be conservative on gas for fishing? i think of it as a lot of
trolling, anchoring and killing the motor, and relatively minimal full
throttle time, making the difference in gas for a 5.0 Vs. a 3.0 pretty
negligible.. i don't want to buy an outrageously oversized motor
either, but i like to say it's better to have it and not need it then
to need it and not have it...


now for the "how to buy it" part...

i've read a lot about spotting problems with the hull, and the motor's
not a real issue, i can easily tell the good from the bad there...,
but the outdrive and steering mechanisms i haven't found good
information on....

i already run like hell away from the ones with lots of salt water
corrosion, but how about basic indicators on the condition of the
outdrive?

excess in/out play on the prop?

turning the prop? maybe that will allow me to hear worn bearings or
gear teeth?

things like that would be awesome...





i'm writing responses as I read them.

Mike: thank you for your response... my father is just as willing to
compromise as I am, but so far noone's told either of us what I wanted
to hear, which is that you can't tow toys with an outboard. once he
hears about this, he'll compromise and we'll argue over which kind of
bowrider we should get instead of which kind of boat we should get.
your information was much more helpful, because i think you understood
best


Everyone else: first thing's first, thank you for your responses...

i had the idea in the back of my mind to take the boating courses,
but this USPS course i don't know about... is that gonna end with me
(and my father) getting our boating licenses? I was out on long
Island sound with my buddy's 22' cobalt and he spent a good deal of
time teaching me all about boating, rules of the water, what things
mean, ect... but priority #1 is walking out with a boating license...
if those courses do both (the ettiquite of the waves, the types of
boats, advantages and disadvantages of stern drive Vs. Outboard, ect,
along with leaving with a boating license, sign me up!)


and no, i don't think we're that ideologically that far away that he
won't accept anything less than a flat bottomed aluminum boat.... but
i guess what i didn't get across in my first post is that he thinks
something less than a bowrider (ie. quazi-fishing/pleasure boats) will
serve our purposes.

mike nailed what i needed to hear, and that's that you can't tow toys
with an outboard.

armed with that information, he'll give up and accept fishing off of a
bowrider... let's not kid ourselves, neither my father or I fish
enough or that enthusiaticially enough to warrant a flat bottomed
aluminum boat. we won't need a livewell, we never catch anything! i
joke but there is some truth behind it as to how recreationally we
fish.



i mean now that he knows we're stuck with an i/o (and a bowrider by
default) it comes down to motor size. mike hinted at there not being
much of a difference b/w an 80HP outboard and a 140HP i/o in terms of
fuel consumption.....

now that we're on the bowrider train, it comes down to a 3.0L chrysler
versus the 5.0L chevy.....

is it fair to say for my father's purposes that the difference in gas
used will be negligable? sort of negligible? i think that's why he
wanted an outboard motor-based boat in the 1st place, lower maintence
plus lower fuel costs... not whether it gave him any advantage out on
the lakes fishing....

if the answer is yes, then it's a 3.0L all the way. if no, then i
guess it's up to me how bad I want to dig myself a hole...

and last question, how about the performance differences b/w the 3.0L
and the 5.0L?

i could imagine it as a issue of power/weight ratio.... i would
imagine these boats i'm looking at to be heavy! is the 140HP 3.0L
gonna come up short because there's just a LOT of weight to move
around... someone commented before that 145hp in a fishing boat would
be FAST... clearly because of the power/weight ratio....

and in your guys opinion, is the power difference worth the 2 litres
of displacement? in weight of the motor i doubt it would make a huge
impact, but gas consumption it would...how do they stack up in terms
of power?