Suitable motor size?????????

[tommy13]

I'm wanting to upgrade my boat this spring and wondering what is a suitable horsepower for tubing. I can't ski anymore due to junk ankles but still like tubing when the fish arent biting, i was considering a 60 horse, any input would be great.

[solbes]

60 would probably be plenty, but it really depends on the boat. What kind and size of rig do you have?

[Water Hazard]

I have a 60 hp Yamaha 4-stroke on a 16.5 foot boat. We've used it the past two summers for tubing. With three people in the boat and some big guys in the tube (around 200 lbs), we max out around 30 mph.

[tommy13]

The rig depends on what i find, lol. I'm looking at an alumacraft, 16 2' console, just a nice fishing boat. Would go down to a 50 if that would work aswell, really just looking for something good for fishing mid to bigger bodies of water and something for tubing aswell.

[Shorelunch]

There's a general rule of thumb when it comes to hp. You want to go 80% or more of the boat's max hp rating. For example if a boat's max hp is 90, I wouldn't go less than a 70 hp.

[marine_man]

Follow Shorelunch's reccomendation and you should be ok. A 60 hp motor should be fine for a 16' boat when it comes to Tubing.. . 50 hp might be cutting it close if you're a bigger guy or you pull bigger people - it takes a lot of hp to get a tube popped up and out of the water...

marine_man