You can never have too much power
- Thread starter Dave S
- Start date
beerman
Member
I have a friend who's boat looks like that. Scariest ride my families ever had. Don't spend any time with him any more.
I've got an overpowered story from back in the late 60's when I was a kid.
My older brother was in the Boy Scouts and my dad was asst Scoutmaster. His best friend, the Scoutmaster, bought a brand new 15ft runabout with a 65hp transom limit. He thought he would soup it up and put a 100hp Merc on it (as I recall that was the biggest outboard you could get at the time).
Brand spankin' new boat, brand spankin' new motor, and it looked mighty similar to that cartoon drawing... he idles it out to the 5 mph/no wake bouy and when he gets there he guns it. The whole boat does a wheelie like a motorcycle, points the bow straight skyward, backwater floods the transom, and it sinks backward straight down into the lake. The boat had maybe 4 minutes time on the meter when he totalled it. I learned to respect transom limits at an early age, LOL.
My older brother was in the Boy Scouts and my dad was asst Scoutmaster. His best friend, the Scoutmaster, bought a brand new 15ft runabout with a 65hp transom limit. He thought he would soup it up and put a 100hp Merc on it (as I recall that was the biggest outboard you could get at the time).
Brand spankin' new boat, brand spankin' new motor, and it looked mighty similar to that cartoon drawing... he idles it out to the 5 mph/no wake bouy and when he gets there he guns it. The whole boat does a wheelie like a motorcycle, points the bow straight skyward, backwater floods the transom, and it sinks backward straight down into the lake. The boat had maybe 4 minutes time on the meter when he totalled it. I learned to respect transom limits at an early age, LOL.
Gerald, that is a great story. Bet the motor was a lot like the one that is on the back of my Glaspar still!
In my old Glaspar I would always warn everybody on board when I was ready to go on plane. That way I would not dump them out the back. For some reason the 270 DA does not have the same 'issue'.
In my old Glaspar I would always warn everybody on board when I was ready to go on plane. That way I would not dump them out the back. For some reason the 270 DA does not have the same 'issue'.
Converse48
Well-Known Member
I appreciate the concept of never having too much power, having grown up on a string of grossly under-powered boats, but I word it slightly differently:
"No one ever wishes they had gotten the smaller engine"
"No one ever wishes they had gotten the smaller engine"
That's funny about the boat sinking. Power is good. It's all a matter of where you place it!
I have an 83 HP engine in my 11' dinghy and I'm jealous because the new models have over 100 HP. It's a mid-engine design so the weight is distributed nicely.
I have an 83 HP engine in my 11' dinghy and I'm jealous because the new models have over 100 HP. It's a mid-engine design so the weight is distributed nicely.
