Outboard Horse Power Questions

[gunflint]

From what I understand horse power ratings for outboards are determined at the prop and not the powerhead. If this is true does changing props change legal horsepower rating?

What do manufactuerers use to determine how much horse power a particular boat can handle? Is it weight, speed or a combination? Thanks

[marine_man]

As for your first question, it's determine at the prop shaft, not the prop, so changing the prop will not have any effect on horse power...

As far as what HP a particular boat can handle I believe it's based off of weight, width and length... maybe they figure in how much flotation as well... I'm not sure on that...

marine_man