Not having the time to race around the states (as I am from Canada, this is indeed an en-devour dealing with border fees, travel ect..) buying packages and trailers just for the engines and then having to try and sell a used boat and trailer with no engine= too much hassle, I am more interested in newer engines direct from marinas or factories whos stock is usually Optimax no older than 2006. At least this is how it seems to be in my neck of the woods. Please correct me if I'm wrong:)
I was pleasantly surprised after some emails with Dave Packard from Thundermist boats regarding my concern for weight, torque and horse power on his new boat. He was very professional and cautious with his wording- which is completely understandable as he has to answer to the Coast Guard and insurance companies.
"I appreciate your interest. Heres the thing about the transoms: we build them much the same we do for much larger boats. As such, they can handle damn near any engine made to day from the perspective of the boat. What I mean is the engine or engine power will not harm or damage the boat itself. What is the problem, from our perspective as well as the CG, is the larger engines make the boat unsafe to operate. The more power, the more unpredictable the boat becomes as you go faster and accelerate quicker, etc. This is why the CG rates the boats the way they do. All of us(CG, us, and the Insurance
carrier) are most interested in one thing; making sure no one dies on one of our boats. I can assure you the CG and Insurance company could care less how fast the boat goes, as long as no one ever gets hurt. I hope this fleshes out for you."
Would love some of you pros to weigh in on this...am I crazy to put a 200/225 Pro XS or straight Optimax on my new Thundermist? Getting to the point- some of you have weighed in on this topic of mine and I have seen comments that say nooo waay tooo heavy and some that have said the new boats are built heavier and it will be fine! Hope this new info can make it a more black and white issue.
