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How Much HP Do You Need ?

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

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Many people are cruising the site 


They are asking this question over and over


I have asked it in the past and continue to ask it today 


Here is some advice I found online for those who may be asking it before pulling the trigger on a Benny ...


Average Pontoon Boat Speeds (With 15 Examples)



August 28, 2014 by Jim Harmer 



When buying a pontoon boat, one of the major considerations is your top speed.  Since pontoon boats are generally not built for speed, skiing and tubing behind one can be difficult unless you take care to select an engine, weight, and pontoon style that will be conducive to speeds required for skiing and tubing.


How Fast Do Pontoon Boats Go?



I scoured the internet for guys who have reported their speeds on forums around the web.  All speeds recorded with GPS, and except where listed, with a light to medium load.

  • G3 Suncatcher 22′ V22RF with a 115hp engine and medium load can go about 25 mph (39 kilometers)

    22mph (38 kilometers) with a 90hp engine and medium load
  • With 11 people in the boat (max capacity) and a 115hp engine, it gets about 22 mph (35 kilometers)
  • Under perfect, ideal conditions and only one person in the boat, it can hit 31 mph (48 kmph)

[*]21′ with lifting strakes and a 90hp engine and perfect conditions gets 36 mph (58 kilometers)

[*]18′ Bass Buggy with 60hp engine can go up to 18mph (29 kilometers)

[*]Suntracker 22′ with a 70hp engine can get 21 mph with a light load (34 kilometers)

[*]Gigantic 30′ Pontoon with a 115hp will only get around 15mph (24 kilometers)

[*]24′ Pontoon boat with a 115hp and a medium load got around 25mph (38 kilometers)

[*]18′ Party Barge with a 75hp engine can get around  24mph (38 kilometers)

[*]20′ Bass Buggy with a 60hp motor only gets around 13-17 mph (18 to 27 kilometers)

[*]20′ Starcraft with a 75hp engine and with no load can get 23 mph (36 kilometers)

[*]26′ Crest III with a 90hp engine and medium load can get around 28mph (45 kilometers)

[*]24′ 2006 Sweetwater with a 90hp engine can go around 18mph, or 20.5mph with a 115hp engine

[*]26′ Tritoon with a 175hp engine and a medium/heavy load can get up to 35mph (56 kilometers)

[*]21′ Tritoon with a 90hp engine and only two people on board can get up to 27mph (43 kilometers)


How Fast Do You Really Need to Go?



Your initial response is probably “the faster, the better” but in reality you likely don’t need to go as fast as you think.  While speeds certainly vary according to the tastes and abilities of your riders, consider the following as good average speeds for various water sport activities.

  • Waterskiing with two skis – 15 to 26mph is pretty normal (28 to 42 kilometers)
  • Tubing with very young kids – My kids really don’t want to go faster than 5 to 10 mph (16kph).  They are 4 and 6 years old.  Most of the time, they feel like idling is a wild ride, but will sometimes get brave enough to hit 11mph.
  • Tubing with kids 8 – 10 years old – Depends dramatically on the kid, but most wouldn’t want to go faster than 15 or 20 mph (24 to 32 kilometers).
  • Tubing with older teens and adults – Above 25 mph (40 kilometers) is dangerous unless you’re just going in a straight line.  At 20 (34 kilometers), you can get really nice air and have the ride of your life but even this speed can be dangerous with more than one rider.  21 mph is a pretty adventurous ride and will easily knock off riders if you make tight turns.
  • Wakeboarding – 13mph to 18mph (30 kilometers) is a pretty average ride. Wakeboarding requires less speed than many other water sports, and going too fast increases the danger dramatically.  The large, solid board strapped to both legs makes this water sport more dangerous at high speeds than some others.
  • Slalom skiing – 14mph (22.5 kilometers) is a little slow and 36mph is HAULING (and extremely dangerous)!  A good average speed is somewhere around 22mph (35 kilometers).
  • Kneeboarding – Somewhere around 13 to 20 mph (22 to 32 kilometers)
  • Barefoot – This blog gives a formula that is helpful for those in the U.S.  Take your weight in pounds and divide by 10.  Then add 20.  So if you’re 200 pounds, you go to 20mph, then add 20, which means 40mph.

If you are new to boating, that is probably a little eye-opening.  Before, you thought you needed as much speed as possible, but as you can see from this breakdown, the optimal speed for most watersports is only 22 mph (36 kilometers).  Just about ANY pontoon boat with a 90hp motor can do that as long as it isn’t loaded down with people.  With a 115, you should be hitting the optimal speed even if your boat is pretty well loaded down with people. For most pontoon boat captains, the real goal is to hit the golden 22 mph (36 kph) mark.  At that point, your fishing/cruising rig becomes a nice watersports rig as well.


How Weight (Load) Affects Speed



Prepare yourself for a horrible generalization.  This depends dramatically on the specific boat and the setup, but just as a guestimation aid, for every thousand pounds you add to your boat, you’ll lose about 15% of your speed.  So a 22′ boat with no load may get up to 29mph, but will likely slow down to 24.5mph with 1,000 pounds of people in the boat (5 or 6 adults).


How the bimini Affects Speed


  • One pontoon boat captain reported that folding down the bimini took  his speed from 32mph all the way up to 36mph (51kilometers to 58 kilometers).  In my experience, it’s usually much less of a difference than that unless it is an incredibly windy day.  I usually only see a 1 mph difference with top up vs down.

How the Prop Affects Speed


  • When you first get your boat, it will likely come with a “safe” prop that is meant to make the motor operate under nice and easy conditions.  Almost everyone will switch out that prop and go with something a little smaller (usually) to get the speed up and push up the RPMs to around 5000 or 6000 depending on your recommended range for your particular motor.

How Dirty Pontoons Affect Speed


  • It is not surprising to see a pontoon boat slow down 2 to 6mph if you have algae, barnacles, or other crud on your pontoons.  For those pontoon boat captains who don’t trailer but leave their boat in the water most of the season, this is an important consideration.
  • .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................





For my SL21 Bennington I bought the Yamaha 90 HP 4 Stroke 


Thanks to the members of this forum I didn't purchase what my Dealer was pushing the Merc High Thrust 60


To this day I give thought if the 115 HP would of been the better Motor 


But honestly I seldom on my Private Lake Go Full Throttle as I cruise mainly at night :)


Good Luck On Your Decision 


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Waaaay too many variables to generalize here, but this info is a start.


I'll go on record as saying that for general all-around water sports, a 115 is pushing it; a 150 is the minimum.


YMMV.
 
Ok here is another example non boat related that is in the same line as. "Buy as big as you can afford". In scouring the net trying to decide on options for a pool... You'll probably guess what they say about the pool, the decking around it and many other options... Yup... Go as big as you can afford.


But knowing what I know now about boating. I think the 150 is the sweet spot. And you should always think about resale. When I bought my first boat I thought I'd have it for many years. Turns out I sold it after 2. Had I put a 115 or 90 on it. I'm confident it would have been harder to sell. 


Of of course this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
 
Another great article with lots of good baseline info. Obviously, there are generalizations and assumptions, but listing every variable would be impossible. Thanks again Pittsburgh. It is funny that you were posting that up just as I was pontificating on speeds and the use of our boat. Great minds... Naw, never mind! 
 
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I do feel bad for those who get bombarded by the "Go bigger" advice, especially after placing an order.


That said, a lot depends on from whom the inputs come. We all need dealers (and without them, Bennington would be screwed). But........


Only owners can accurately prescribe next steps. Dealers only want the sale. "Oh yeah, this 90 will do everything you would ever want." But nope.


What else is a Captain to do?
 
Pittsburgh,


Thanks for the thread. Speeds for water sports vary as you point out. We generally have 4 to 6 adults and three kids on board when we are on the lake. We upgraded from a 20' pontoon with  90hp to  22' tritune with a 150hp. We struggled to slalom ski with the pontoon but have been absolutely thrilled with the SCWX. We can pull two slalom skiers without any problem and normally ski at 28mph to 30mph. Knee boarding is  done at 11mph to 15mph. We tried our pontoon boat 16 years ago with a 60hp and determined the larger 90hp was necessary. The 90hp was max for the hull. It worked fine with a young family but as we matured and grew it became inadequate. So far for our purpose which is largely based on enjoying water sports the 22' with a 150hp is perfectly adequate. Can't speak to tubing because we don't do that, but on a very rare occasion. I grew up with deep V boats and have no plans to ever return to them. 
 
If you are going to ski, especially Slalom, go as big as you can afford.  Having 4 adults on your boat and trying to pull a 200lb man out of the water with one ski takes torque and HP.  A 90 is not going to do it.  People on my lake struggle with a 150 with 4 or 5 adults on board.  I cannot stress enough that if slalom skiing is in your daily activities, go big!
 
Well! Not to be argumentative I will have to disagree. The hardest thing that we ( those that pilot the boat when someone skies) with the tritune and 150hp is to be gentle with the initial power up when pulling a skier out of the water. When my son and I slalom ski together ( we both weigh closes to 200 lbs) my wife can and has pulled so hard she pulled the rope handles out of our hands. I think that is what you call torque plus. I know we had to learn the proper technique, both skier and driver when we had an underpowered  90hp pontoon, to be successful at slolam skiing, but with the proper ski and technique we had many great years. We now have been able to go back to our performance skies and don't have to worry about size and number on board. I to was in the wheel house of more, more, more I was convinced by our dealer, who has kids that ski that I would be perfectly happy with the 150. I also know that my tritune is just a SCWX and my not weight as much as a G,R,or Q so I can only speak to our craft. The thing I really love is an entire weekend of skiing and floating is still just a one fill up affair with a lot left over for the next weekend. I'm not an expert just my humble opinion.
 
A good Slalom skier that knows what he is doing can get up much easier than those that don't.  But, most people I have pulled and ask me to take them skiing are not pros.  I always have a boat full of people so a 150 would not work for me.  Like I said, if money is not an object, it would only make sense to go big.
 
Substitute "fun" with "Horsepower" for the song below

 
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Considering bigger is better, is not always correct.  We did that on our pool in Memphis, as the larger one was going to cost the same as a smaller version.  However, maintaining it was more work, and more costly and the pool was used mainly to cool off, not swimming laps.


We also downsized from a 24 foot Hurricane Deckboat to an 18 foot Bennington Fishing model and love it.  Easier to dock, and tow.  We did get the largest motor allowed for our 18 foot Benny a 60 HP Yamaha. The pontoon usually just has 2 people on it but it is still comfortable with 4 aboard.  We have few friends. :D


I think the size is a personal choice and sometimes trial and error is the only way to find out.  This of course can be expensive.
 
I am a firm believer that "Bigger Is Better" Buy the most motor you can afford. I would rather have more power than not enough. This is of course just my humble opinion and you have to do what is best for your wallet. I bought the lower  model truck so I could have the 4x4 diesel. Do I always use the power and the 4x4? No, but its there when I need it. I also own a pool company and I always tell my customers that the biggest complaint we hear is... I didn't do enough deck, We thought this pool would be big enough to grow into etc...
 
As far as waterskiing or wake boarding is concerned the most important thing is your "Hole shot" not the speed. You have to be able to pull the skiier/skiiers out of the water and on plane. Then adjust your speed. Our optimum waterskiing speed is 23-25 mph. Slalom might be a tad faster......
 
In regards to how much does one "need;" I guess it is mission specific. It depends on how and where and why one uses their boat. For me it was and usually comes down to "want." I wanted the biggest Merc offered.


Cheers, Steve
 
If I find out that we need a 350 instead, I'm gonna cry, then cry some more and then sell it all and buy a dingy!  
 
You won't need a 350...you'll need a 400 or a 557!
 
Baroda5 said:
If I find out that we need a 350 instead, I'm gonna cry, then cry some more and then sell it all and buy a dingy!  
Click to expand...

You are riding a monster. I am willing to bet money that you will be amazingly happy with the 300. 
 
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Baroda5 said:
You aren't helping!!!  :)
Click to expand...

Going from a 115 to a 300. I'm thinking the smile on your face is going to be there for quite a long time. With my 250 I never once thought...what if.
 
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