Re: What do you recommend for a 4-5 person watercraft?
I had a 11'6" Zodiac with wooden floor that I ran with a brand-new (at the time) Evinrude 8hp. With a 10hp, it jumped out of the water, but with the 8 hp I could only get it to plane with me in it, or me and my very small boy(at the time) so I'd get as big a motor as you can. You said 15-20 hp, and that's not a bad plan. The thing that I really had not accounted for when I bought it was, yup, it could carry the weight of 4-5 people, but boy was it crowded, and if you wanted to bring anything with, like fishing gear, etc., well, it was almost impossible. You've gotta make room for the gas tank too. It was so crowded with my wife and I and two little kids that it really wasn't much fun. With two people it was okay. I didn't keep it for very long, and I bought a 19-foot Grumman sq. stern canoe from my uncle (
http://www.marathonboat.com/canoes2.htm). Five of us could fit in it comfortably (two sitting on coolers, or one on a cooler and two in the middle seat... and it's wide enough), and all paddle. Weight cap. is 1000 lbs. I could leave it outside if I wanted, because it was aluminum. I traded my 8hp to my dad for his 6hp, because the Grumman was only rated for a 5hp. I popped the 6 hp badge off from it (wink). I saw one up in the Boundary Waters running with a 10 hp, so I wasn't too worried. Believe it or not, it planes with three adults in it. Probably because of the length. I bought a sail rig for it at a garage sale, and sailed it on some pretty rough lakes. It is very stable. That canoe is heavy, but we car-topped it for years, sometimes on pretty small cars, using Thule and Yakima roof racks... and I could load it myself after I got a system down. By small, I mean, my son still car-tops it on a 1996 Dodge Neon. It does look kinda funny. I still own the beast, er canoe... it's over 30 years old. It's going to be a hand-me-down. My two older kids, who are in their 20s, both want it. That was the best money I ever spent on watercraft, and the only thing I would have done different is get an outboard with a built-in gas tank. You can find 5hp motors with integral tanks. I don't know if you have a place you could just leave a canoe outside, but I hung that baby from the ceiling of my garage using a hoist I designed to get it out of the way. Harken now sells one that is just like the one I designed... should've gone to market with that. I know this isn't probably what you were lookin' to hear, but I thought I'd run it by you anyway.
<br /> <br />I plan to use my first watercraft on lakes and Gulf of Mexico (on fresh and salt water). It needs to be able to mount a 15-20HP motor. It should be able to fit into a car and to be easily transported from the car to the stream. So, I have just one option - inflatable boat. <br /><br /><br />I have seen some descriptions of inflatable boats such as SeaEagle, Zodiac, Mercury, and so on, but I have no idea what to choose. Never owned a boat, so, they all look the same to me. <br /><br />What brand would you recommend? <br /><br /><br />Thank you in advance!