Optimax 115 or 125

Any input on these engines? I will get a new boat soon and it only comes with Mercury Out boards. What kind of propellers do you recommend? Boat is a 19ft about 1500lbs empty, link; http://www.mv-marin.fi/eng/5700br_1.html

Re: Optimax 115 or 125

Nice looking boat.
Personally i would go with the largest motor you can afford up to the maximum rated HP. Minimum HP I would consider for reasonable performance would be 70% of the maximum and that would be around the 100HP mark. There is nothing worse than feeling underpowered or first time out wishing you had bought the bigger motor. It is then too late to go back.
Remember if you have 140hp on the back you do not have to always use it to it's maximum but it is nice to have when you want it.
Our boat has a max rating of 140hp and that is what I have on the back. I would not have it any other way. We can still ski and tube with a full load of passengers (including the skiers and tubers) with no issues. Other folk with similar boats and less HP have difficulty pulling their skiers up in the same situation without changing out the prop and re-distributing the weight around the boat.
Just my personal opinion though.
Good Luck with your new boat and keep us all posted how you make out and what decision you come to.
Welcome to iboats,
Ken.

Re: Optimax 115 or 125

Hi, and thanks for your welcome, message and recommendation.
Already with the 115 It will get to 40+MPH with no problems and the next choice from the 125 would be the Verado 135 or the 135 V6 Optimax and that will be like 4000? more..That is about 20% of what the boat+engine costs.
I really never have that many people or load in my current boat either. It's a 75hp E-TEC on an aluboat and top speed is about 40 mph..
So I think the 125 will work just fine, even though I see your point and agree 100%..

How about propellers? I am not sure what they will put on, I'll find out tomorrow when I actually will have a look at it at the dealer..

Re: Optimax 115 or 125

It will most likely come with whatever the standard prop is. They may recommend a different one but if not then try it out with what it comes with and evaluate the performance from there. There is no hard and fast rule on prop's as far as i know without evaluating current performance. You may want to post the information in the boat types forum under your make and see if anyone has any experience with the same motor and boat that can recommend what they have found. If not then see how the standard prop works out and possibly replace with a different pitch down the road. It is always a good idea to have a spare prop anyway in case you damage one miles from home. I have 2 props currently. a 14" X 17" pitch that I use for beginner or multiple skiers and a ported 14" X 19" pitch that is my general purpose prop. I always have the other one on board in case I destroy one so I can change it and continue with my boating. Never happened yet but you never know.
As regards the motor, it is your choice. The only thing is that when you have 40 "ish" MPH you will always wonder how it would have gone with the bigger motor. I have a friend with the same boat as we have up at the cottage who has a 115hp on his. Although adequate in performance it is way slower both out of the hole and top speed than ours.
Good luck and enjoy your new boat.

Re: Optimax 115 or 125

On what prop you get with it, it may or may not be optimized. I bought a boat from a large dealership once and the prop was 3" too high in pitch for the boat. I don't know the cause of the error. I assume that either the rigger didn't know my gear ratio, or the only props they had in stock were for the higher hp engines which could handle the higher pitch.

What I would do is make a deal with the dealer whereby you could field test the boat and optimize your prop before you settle on which one you are going to buy.

With a purchase, as long as you don't mess up the props you don't select, you should have no problem going through them till you get the right one.

I agree on the largest engine. You specified two engines, I'd take the larger of the two. If you don't want the hp, just cut the throttle; but if you need it, you have it and there is a lot to be said about that. BTDT

Mark

Re: Optimax 115 or 125

Regarding power -- another consideration is fuel consumption. A small engine working very hard may actually consume more fuel than a large engine that is "loafing" at a much lower throttle setting. Don't shoot yourself in the foot on this issue. It is the second most important decision in the process. Selecting the boat was the first and missing on the second point is a very costly mistake.