Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Top speed with 18hp Evinrude on 14′ aluminum › Re: Top speed with 18hp Evinrude on 14′ aluminum
My experience is it depends on where you steer the motor from. For a small light boat an 18 HP steered from the rear is near as fast as a 25 hp steered from the front. If you want the most from 18 HP steering from the rear is probably best and lots of fun. A rear steering wheel looks sharp too. I had that setup with a 12 ft boat and new 58 Johnson 18 HP as a kid and often had to turn the throttle back to prevent the boat from flipping over. It got about 26 MPH. If I was real dumb and sat on the transom, it got over 30 MPH.
My 12 footer using rear tiller steer with 25HP is a bullet and I think would be real dangerous at WOT. (Never got it wide open with rear steering. With a 12 HP Gale I got 22 MPH by GPS). Steering 25 HP or 30 HP from the front it is sporty, lively and controllable but definitely slower(26 or 27 MPH by GPS) than from the rear. If you are steering from the front 25/30 HP is ok. If from the rear, you should investigate a 25 HP before going for one.
Individual opinions, boats, heartrates and risk tolerance will definitely vary. 😀