Higbee Weight Capacity.

D

David Clites

Active member
Hi All, does anybody know what the Weight Capacity (USCG or otherwise) is for my 12 foot Higbee BBSB? I usually power it with an 8hp Evinrude 2 stroke--it planes easily with me and my wife in it (summertime--just cruising around). Our total weight is around 300 pounds (notice I am not saying how much my wife weighs! lol). I also have 9.9 Johnson 2 stroke and a 6hp Evinrude 2 stroke on this boat at times, but the 8hp seems best.

As soon as I locate my misplaced GPS I will update this thread re: speed achieved with the 8hp--I believe a couple years ago some forum members asked that question and as best as I recall I never checked the speed and updated on this forum.

Thanks in advance.
 
Update: i forgot to mention this is a 1986 boat, if that matters. Today i did a Speed Test with just me (around 180 pounds) and minimum gear in the boat, around 3 gallons of gas. There was around 9 -12 inches of chop on the river, so i didn't quite run WOT . GPS indicated 20 mph SOG. On a slick calm day, i am sure i could get another 2 or 3 mph, maybe top speed as much as 25 mph. Plenty fast for me! Also for security reasons i have to store the boat with motor removed and locked away elsewhere. These 8hp OMC 2strokes don't strain my back while lugging around . The extra 10 lbs involved with an OMC 9.9/15 hp is just too much for me.
 
With you, motor, fuel, and gear, you should be right at that 300 lbs and I would try to adhere to that. That boat is definitely not a 2 person boat. Higbees are not known as being the most stable rigs out there. I am about 200 lbs. When I hunted mine with:

Myself
Motor
Fuel
12-15 decoys
Blind Bag
Emergency Can (waterproof dry box with mini toolkit, flares, knife, spare cord, etc)
Decoy poles and anchor sticks

...I was maxed out. The boat still flew with a 15 hp but when you really load them up, it puts a lot of stress on the transom which have been known to crack. Keep in mind, those boats are relatively stable until they are not. Meaning: It will seem fine until you dip an edge or the bow. When I first got the boat, I leaned a little too far back backing out of a boat ramp and buried the stern. Then at the end of last season, in open water, I buried the bow with a decent sized following sea and tailwind when I slowed down.

For non-geared up cruising you will probably be OK with just you and your wife but keep in mind...when things go bad, they go bad quick.
 
Thanks Jay for the input. Ironically today i had my first mishap. While tied to our dock and anchored at stern i needed to tilt the motor up after tide had gone out a couple hours (skeg was hitting sand). Instead of putting on my waders i figured i could step off the dock onto the bow (despite 1foot plus waves). Wrong! The round bottom of bow is not very stable. Next thing i knew i was on my back in 2 feet of water. At least i was smart enough to leave my wallet and cellphone on the dock before doing my backflip into 55 defree water. Lol
 
Just about everyone that has stepped into a duck boat has gone ass over tea kettle at least once. Have done just that and now I sit on the dock and put my feet in first.

Joe
 
Joe, I hear ya, this is second time I fell in the water from a boat while duck hunting. A couple years back I jumped off the bow of my buddy's center console and misjudged the height--fell in about 6 inches of water.

I hope there is no 3rd time.
 
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