10' used Porta Bote questions

BeachPatrol

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Dec 14, 2015
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Just bought a used 10' Porta Bote and am extremely happy with it. It's probably about 13 years old, but appears to have been used sparingly. One item that is showing it has been in the Florida sun and rain is the transom though. Seems easy enough to reproduce and having looked through the forum a bit, I see I have found the true experts on the subject matter for sure.

First thing I did was to do out and buy a brand new Suzuki DF4 outboard. It does pretty well with just me in it and attains a plane and all, but if I add another adult it seems to not be able to get there. I'm about 190 lbs. any idea on the loads for various motors? I kind of jumped the gun because the Coast Guard sticker said it can go up to 2 HP? IMO I should have got the DF6, which I probably will pursue. Any words of wisdom on this?

Lastly, the transom. Can you guys provide me with some best practice ideas to build one the right way and to make it the most rigid? Any and all help is truly appreciated. So glad I found this forum!
 

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jbcurt00

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If the boats rated for 2hp, you're already overpower w the DF4, esp since its probably significantly heavier then most 2cyl 2hp 10+ys ago when the boat was nade and rated.

DF4 is rated 2.9 kW which equals 3.89hp +/-

Jumping again to the DF6 is worse still

Perhaps a 12ft porta bote would be a better fit.
 

MTboatguy

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One thing to keep in mind, Porta Botes are rated for weight, and not HP, so with the newer lighter engines, they are very easy to over power these boats. I have never seen an official Coast Guard Sticker on a Porta Bote with an HP rating, but again, they are easy to over power if you are not careful.

Here is the specifications chart on the botes.

http://www.porta-bote.com/specifications-colors
 
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BeachPatrol

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Dec 14, 2015
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Curious then. It sounds like many folks on this Forum have reinforced their transom designs and "up sized" their motors. The Porta Bote people said exactly what you did jbcurt00 about the weight, not the HP. I guess us humans always want to go faster ( - : I will take a picture of the CG tag......
 
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