adding kicker motor

Hello,

Just got a 21ft, '01 Starcraft Islander aluminum hull and wanted to put
a kicker for trolling. Can a 7.5hp small outboard push this boat at
least 9mph or do I need bigger? Should I have the bracket installed
professionally or is this a DIY project? Boat is like new with 13hrs and
Im very weary on drilling holes into it..lol.

Any help would be appreciated...

TIA!

Jim

"Jim" <jl.DeleteThis@goody.net> wrote in message news:3F5F6B96.76158268@goody.net...
 > Hello,
 >
 > Just got a 21ft, '01 Starcraft Islander aluminum hull and wanted to put
 > a kicker for trolling. Can a 7.5hp small outboard push this boat at
 > least 9mph or do I need bigger? Should I have the bracket installed
 > professionally or is this a DIY project? Boat is like new with 13hrs and
 > Im very weary on drilling holes into it..lol.
 >
 > Any help would be appreciated...

Hi Jim: I don't know if this applies to your boat (I'm not familiar with
that hull), but it might help. From my experience, the 7.5 might work OK
for slow trolling, but I would guess that it wouldn't push it at 9 mph. I'm
thinking a 10 or 15 might work better.

Background for comparison purposes: I have a 21 foot welded aluminum
runabout river boat - wide, flat bottom (6 foot), welded windshield, covered
V bow, interior tanks w/ 50 gal capacity, canvas top, folding seats, etc.,
with a large V6 two stroke outboard. On the trailer, wet, it weighs about
3300 lbs, so I think the boat and motor wet is about 2300-2500 lbs.

I've been using an old 9.8 hp regular/short shaft Mercury and it works very
well for trolling (we troll at 2-3 mph by GPS for coho salmon and lake
trout). I've also used it as a back up and it will hit maybe 5 or 6 mph
full speed which is OK for that purpose, but not great. I think long shaft
will definitely work better on my boat. At the lowest bracket setting, the
prop on this kicker of mine tends to be a little quick to ventilate (loose
bite) in the chop and/or if there's too much weight forward.

The motor is in excellent mechanical condition from compression to lower
unit, so I'm assuming performance is comparable to a newer 10 hp. The prop
is a brass two blade in good condition- probably the original prop. I have
no idea if a different prop would change performance. I'm keeping my eyes
open for a 15 hp long shaft because I think it would give me a little more
oomph at about the same weight and give me a better bite in certain
conditions.

As for the kicker bracket mounting - In my particular boat, it could easily
be a DIY because I can easily see the structure that it would be mounted to
and there's really no options as to placement. It would take a good drill
and reasonable care in marking and drilling the holes, but it would be
pretty straight forward I think. If I couldn't easily tell exactly where to
mount it, or was pressed for time in any way, I wouldn't hesitate to take it
to a pro because I don't think it would be a whole lot of "shop time" to
mount it - probably the minimum.

Before you procede, try to figure out if the kicker bracket will lower the
motor enough to work well with a regular/short shaft motor. Also give
thought to which side would be best, and how you'd hook up a remote steering
system (I use the EZ Steer and love it). Then if you can borrow or rent a
7.5 or other, give it a try.

Have fun.

DJ<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->