am I overpowered

[stevenrace]

I am new here and need some help...I just bought a 14 ft flat bottom jon boat and I have a 20 horse 1974 motor mounted on it I took it out and when you get out of the hole and it plains off and you give it some more throtle the boat speeds up and the right side of the boat starts to get real loose and ther for I got thrown out of the boat and I wondering why it is doing that the motor is in the center...just not sure what to check...I have drivven boats this size or a little smaller with 25horse power motors and nothing like this ever happend...please help..also the motor is all the way down and it doesn't seem to be cavintating....

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: am I overpowered

If you were thrown out of the boat, there is obviously something wrong. Hopefully, you had a kill switch lanyard on when that happened.

The first thing you should do it to look for a capacity plate on the boat. It should tell you what the maximum hp rating for it is. Beyond that, if the boat gets "squirrely" when you get beyond a certain speed, you probably do have too much engine on it.

BTW, do you know what the width of the bottom of the boat is? There are 14' boats and there are 14' boats .... as in some can easily handle 20hp and some can't. In my experience, narrow boats are usually the ones that want to roll over easily.

 

[Splat]

Re: am I overpowered

My flat botton with a 52" beam was only rated for a 6hp if that gives you any referance.

Bill

 

[stevenrace]

Re: am I overpowered

their is no rating plate in my boat I have looked all over it. I haven't even seen a serial number and yes I had safty in mind when i was trying it out....but the bottom is over 40 inches wide i will have to get my tape out tommrow and give it a look....also the fin that bolts up right above the foot isnt their like most and does't look like there has ever been one their....keep up the help please