40-45 MPH will need significant HP. When I was a teenager in the 1960s, Dad had a 1958 Voyager14 (same hull as the viking14, but with a splashwell), and in 1965, he put a V4 60 HP Johnson on it (photo below). The weight screwed up handling some. With a 12 inch pitch prop, and the trim pin all the way up (which caused cavitation on turns and took a bit of time to plane off) and me alone in the boat at 150 pounds, top speed was 41 MPH. With that combination, it struggled to pull a skier out of the water, but once up, at a top speed of about 38, I was able to step off a ski and barely stay up skiing barefoot after dragging the boat down to about 34. Two 35s would be roughly equivalent to that one 60 HP, but plane off faster and use more fuel. An 11 inch prop, had a top speed of 38 with the trim pin all the way up, but was a better prop for all around use at trim pin one notch below top. For best all around use and handling, the 40 HP Johnson we had for a few years before that was a better combination for that boat, and what I run now on my Voyager14.
Dave
