On Wed, 09 May 2007 18:13:30 -0400, Chris Larocque
wrote:


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

Bull****. Outboards pull toys just fine.


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?

No, it's going to end with you and your father knowing a lot more about
boating than what some 'buddy' told you.

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.

Mike was wrong, or you misunderstood him.

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?