Need houseboat motor advice
- Thread starter Rick Kyte
- Start date
Ed Askew
Well-known member
That's a nice houseboat you've got there. We've run through a few over the years, the current one my brother bought about 10 years ago is something like 50 x 20 feet and runs on two twin 35 evinrudes. The barge captain knows what he's talking about. Big engines are for putting boats up on the plane, and you won't be planing, so you only need enough horsepower deal with displacement speeds. That 70 hp we have is more than enough, we can't even go full throttle without bringing water over the bow and into the cabin. We deal with major winds and tides getting the boat down to the marsh and then back into sheltered anchorage for hurricane season, and it handles those fine. I'm guessing the boat you have there will need maybe 1/4 what we have. Look at Glen-l.com. Glen-l has several houseboat plans for boats about the same size as yours. I'd go with what they're recommending for their boats. our latest houseboat we're building right now, and about to launch the hull part of it next weekend, will be 55x24' and will displace 50,000 lbs. We'll power it with a 100 hp Yamaha 4 stroke.
Ed.
Ed.
Rick Kyte
Well-known member
Ed,
I appreciate the advice. I'll take a look at the Glen-L site. My boat is 8' x 24'. Devlin has plans for the Millie Hill, which is 8' x 20' and the recommended motor is a 10hp. So that's probably what I should put on it. Maybe a bit more to allow for extra power needed in the wind. I haven't checked into the high-thrust motors that Eric mentioned, but I really want to find something used that won't set me back too much.
By the way, have you posted pics of your houseboat recently. I remember a post from about a year ago, but if you posted anything since I missed it.
Rick
I appreciate the advice. I'll take a look at the Glen-L site. My boat is 8' x 24'. Devlin has plans for the Millie Hill, which is 8' x 20' and the recommended motor is a 10hp. So that's probably what I should put on it. Maybe a bit more to allow for extra power needed in the wind. I haven't checked into the high-thrust motors that Eric mentioned, but I really want to find something used that won't set me back too much.
By the way, have you posted pics of your houseboat recently. I remember a post from about a year ago, but if you posted anything since I missed it.
Rick
Ed Askew
Well-known member
That's all I've got. My brother just emailed me saying he about lost consciousness while greasing the interior of the pontoons in the heat today. We should have the hulls in the water this coming weekend and start decking her. We bought a metal building to put up topside. Gotta figure out how to hang a bunch of anodes off the sides some kinda way.
Ed.