Home Forums Fishing Freshwater 35 hp Honda 4 stroke jet drive enough for 16' river boat?

Looking for a boat that will run shallow water on Colorado's Gunnison and Idaho's Snake Rivers.

Found a super clean 16' welded aluminum V-Hull Crestliner Canadian with a 35 HP Honda 4stroke jet drive.

Is that enough poop to scoot upstream and fish/hunt while rowing and drifting down?

after doing some research, it looks like it would be marginal at best.....

It the boat was a flat or modified V it might be enough. I used a 16 foot Lowes 1648 with a 25 HP Johnson in the New in WV & it was enough. Seems it takes more to move the V bottoms.

Is the 35hp rating adjusted for the fact that it’s a jet, or is it a 35hp that is really a 25hp with a jet? You lose as much as 30% of your hp with the jet.

I believe the general rule to be is the more "wet area" or the deeper the V, the more HP it takes to move the boat.

The outboard left the factory as a jet, but it's a V-hull.....it's on the edge of being enough motor.

I'm going to pass, as I want a little more poop to get me out of trouble when the water is big and pushy.

i am going to guess that isn't enough. If it was flat bottom and 48" bottom it would be the minimum. Everyone around here are running Jets now and 60/ 40 Mercs on 17 48 boats are what I see mostly.

Good pass. I used to run jet bottoms on my guide boats on the upper Mississippi.

Jets are far less efficient in power and propulsion than props. Rule of thumb up here is cut the jets horsepower in half to have the equivalent in a prop. A 50hp jet bottom is equal to a 25hp prop drive as an example.

Osky