What size kicker?

[fishfeatures]

HI,

I have a 14ft speedboat (fletcher) it currently has a 60 hp johnson on the back (fixed it up for a mate and am now hoping he'll take my 10 yr younger mariner 30 hp instead as there is no way he needs a 60 hp and it's a monster on mine )

Anyway i do my boating on a freahwater river and occasionally I brave it on really clear days and take her out into the sea near me.

I would like re assurance of a kicker just incase the 60hp decides someday not to co-operate and break down whilst im out in the open Irish sea ( remember no Sea Tow so a call to the great guys of our RNLI Coastguard would have to be made and I don't want to bother them unless it's going down) . The only thing is that i'm not sure what size will do. I don't want to splash out on a 8 hp if a 4 hp will eventually get me back into dry land.But don't want to have a kicker that will get me nowhere either and I'm trying to go for the smallest one so as to keep the weight down due to having the 60Hp there.

Any suggestions??

 

[reddogg]

Re: What size kicker?

Honestly, that boat seams a bit small to have a kicker, but each to their own I'd go with something allong the lines of an 8-9.8hp. That will give you decent power to get you moving and they weigh around 80lbs. If it were me, I'd get one with the controlls on the engine and lock it in the center position and use the main engine to steer with. If your main engine is a 2 stroke get a 2 stroke kicker so you can run it off the main tank instead of having to carry an extra gas tank. Just my 2 cents.

red

 

[sschefer]

Re: What size kicker?

I just did the reseach on this myself and found that a 6hp 4 stroke kicker is adequate on a 16' boat. The primary concern is weight and it's signicant between a 6 and a 9.9. As was mentioned before, if you have a two stroke motor now and you're mixing oil in the fuel tank you might want to consider a two stroke kicker. If you're motor has a separate oil tank and an oil pump then you can run it straight off the main tank and the 4 stroke is the way to go.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: What size kicker?

Better to have it than not have it in my opinion, irish waters have seen enough tragedies due to inadequate measures and I'm not planning on adding to the figure.

The 60 is two stroke so I'll stick with that for the reasons pointed out. I'll go with the 6 hp so
Sschefer if it suits the 16" it'll suit my little dinghy