Old Verses New

[Catfish2939]

I remember learning to ski behind an old Johnson 35hp motor hooked behind an old plywood boat. There were dozens of 30 and 35hp motors on the water in those days and we skied behind them. I owned a 35hp Mercury motor on a small basstracker in the early ninties. I thought that would be fun to pull our children around on a tube behind it, but it wouldn't pull it out of the water. Seems like a newer 35hp would pull harder than an old one, but it doesnt seem to. In the 60's 35 hp seemed like plenty. Today 35hp seems like a waste of time. Were the old motors more or less powerful than todays modern marvels, or are the boats just that much bigger and heavier. What do you think. Got any stories to tell.

 

[JB]

Re: Old Verses New

Prior to the mid-80s outboards were rated at the flywheel. Since then they have been rated at the prop.<br /><br />The real world difference is small, about 5-7%.<br /><br />Boats are bigger and heavier, memories are flawed and people expect more.<br /><br />35hp is still plenty on a small, flat bottom boat with skinny kids in it.<br /><br />Modern boats are not small or flat bottom and kids aren't skinny any more.

 

[noelm]

Re: Old Verses New

JB quite true, but my father used to have a boat way back in about 1940 (long long time before I was born) that had a 14HP diesel (in a 36 foot boat) and he said it did 750RPM flat out, it had a flywheel that weighed over 400 pounds he used to say it was only 14HP but they were horses not ponies like we have today, maybe he was right

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Old Verses New

Well, I learned to ski as a skinny teenager behind a 13' plywood kit boat with a mid 50's Johnson 25 hp outboard. It worked, but the skier had to be creative about get on top of the water.<br /><br />You could still water ski behind a 35hp motor, but, you need a boat designed to do that, and they don't seem to sell boats like that anymore.<br /><br />About the only answer is to find an old boat from those days that was designed to go fast with small horsepower. Then have the right prop and a perfectly running outboard and skinny kids behind it.<br /><br />It can be done.

 

[SeaJayacas]

Re: Old Verses New

I wasn't into boating back then, but I seem to recall that a 35 hp outboard was considered to be a decent size.

 

[jim dozier]

Re: Old Verses New

I learned to slalom behind a 14 plywood runabout with a 40 hp Johnson and a ski prop on the back. My friend and I only weighed about 100 lbs each and we used to hold about 5 feet of slack when we said GO so the boat would get a head start (strengthens the forearms!). The boat was very light, there were only a driver with a mirror and the skier. Also the engine displacement of an old 40hp 2-cylinder crossflow was comparable to the displacement of a modern 3-cylinder 75hp looper I believe (someone here knows the actual numbers) and the engine probably had more grunt (torque) at 1500 rpm than a modern 40 hp of smaller displacement. <br /><br />Smaller boat, smaller people, bigger engine displacement, selective memory. Ahhh the good ole days

 

[Moving Target]

Re: Old Verses New

Believe it or not, when I was young my friend and I used to ski behind his dad's 12 or 14 ft alumacraft with a 9.8 Merc. We had no spotter and took off from the dock, but it worked. <br /><br />Ahh the good old days....