Advice on new boat

[Perryboat]

My beloved 19’ aluminum jet fishing boat is no longer sufficient for my family. Looking at moving to something like the Sun Tracker Fishing Barge 24. About half our use is fishing with 6 ish people, about 1/2 is cruising and tubing with 6-10 people (always had to take turns in the19 footer). I would like to be able to hit top speed of at least 30 mph with 6 people, and at least 25 with 10 people and a tube.

Is the Merc 150 sufficient? Doesn’t seem like the 200 gets me a lot more, for something like $5k extra. Do I need to go to a 250? Ouch.

We boat out the Columbia river, fast current, frequent wind, waves limited to boat wake chop.

Any my thoughts on power needs or other issues with this boat? Looks like I can do the 150 for a sticker of about $41k. Are there better choices in this range? How much can I expect to pay relative to sticker?

Thanks for any help or thoughts you can provide.

 

[Scott Danforth]

You need twin Seven Marine 627s

 

[Perryboat]

Those would certainly move the tube along nicely.

 

[Scott Danforth]

pulling tubes behind a 'toon, you only need about 70-90hp as tubing is done at relatively low speed.

is the tracker a 2-log or 3-log 'toon?

if a 3 log, you can get by with less power.

normally I would tell you to go to boattest.com however they didnt have any testing on tracker 'toons

 

[ahicks]

I went to the brochure and see the boat's rated for 2100lbs of people, so you should be good to go there.
I also saw the big bump in price when it comes to more than 150hp. The 150 makes good sense to me too. If I got it home and it wouldn't do what I wanted, I would start off-loading people until it did!

XP3 package looks great, includes lifting strakes and under deck skinning, both key for performnce.

41k w/150 Merc, trailer, cover, and ski pole sounds pretty reasonable for a brand new boat done right!

 

[HotTommy]

PerryBoat,
I can't answer your question, but I can offer my experience as a data point. ... I have an old 24' two log (no strakes) pontoon boat with a nearly new 115 HP Mercury for power. With a load of about 300 pounds it will reach about 25 MPH. When tubing with two adults on the tube and a load of about 1,000 pounds on board I can reach 21 MPH. Ten people plus equipment will likely weigh near 2,000 pounds. When I have a big crowd and someone wants to tube, I ususally drop some people off to swim while we tube nearby. .... My wild guess is that if I wanted to carry 10 people plus stuff AND pull a tube, I'd want at least 200 HP and my old boat could not carry the weight of that size engine.

 

[ahicks]

Tommy, that boat he's talking about is a tri-toon w/26" tubes and lifting strakes. It's going to float way higher, especially at speed, than either of our boats. -Al

https://www.suntrackerboats.com/boat/gallery.cfm?boat=4232

 

[HotTommy]

Thanks Al. In that case its hard to see why he would need two 627s unless that was a joke that went over my head.

 

[Perryboat]

Thanks for the replies. You’ve got me feeling pretty comfortable about going with the 150. Maybe I’ll look at the twin 627s for my next boat.

 

[icwingman]

i would get the 200 remember with the 150 it has a 90 gal fuel tank maybe you wouldnt have to off load people