looking for a boat for my motor

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Oldoneeye

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New to this site but experienced boating with bigger boats. Tying to put together a reasonably priced 15 to 17 foot alum boat set up with a little character to it. I have a 1992? low hour runs good Merc Short shaft 40, 4 cyl two stroke, weighs 177lbs (little heavier than a 25 hp 4 stroke - before they came out with the light ones, anyway). Tiller steer. Wanted to find an older alum v-hull that will fish two people, take a little chop. Low maintenance is priority - I have a bay boat if the desire to scrub decks overwhelms me. Mostly fishing marsh and bays in south La., specs and reds, freshwater panfish bass boat also - has to have trolling motor. Maybe hard to mount on pointed bow, but got to have it. There are a few new $2500 to $3500 new aluminum jon boats that will fit a short shaft engine and take a 40 - but not looking to go "new" or $$$ with an older engine that may retire itself unexpectedly. and then stuck with a new 4k to 5k short transom boat and trailer. I have been reading posts on this forum and there seem to be some older hulls that work well (Starcraft, etc.) for others. Any ideas appreciated. Plan B is sell the motor and start from scratch. Thanks for suggestions.
 
A 40 short shaft puts you in kind of odd territory. Most boats rated for 40hp have long transoms, and most short transom boats are rated around 25hp max.

You could look into converting it to a long shaft, on some motors it is not worth it, but on others it is not all that difficult, if that is the case, it would greatly widen your search criteria.
 
war eagle makes them. I have one. 548LDV rated for 40hp, 16" transom. I have a 25 on mine, all I need. It will easily handle a 40. I ran mine briefly with a 50 4 stroke, all 230-some pounds of it. It gets a little stern heavy and water WILL come over if the chop is high and comes right at the transom, also if you come off plane just right, you're gonna take some water. I get it even with my light 25 occasionally normally while loading or unloading at the ramp with lots of boat traffic/wake/wind/chop. War eagle's 548 and 648 are .100" thickness and both will take a 40hp easily, and are rated as such. Look into them.

if your motor is a short shaft magnum (4 cylinder), tiller steer, it's worth a good bit of money to some of the duck racers up here.
 
Also look at the Lowe boats. My 2001 takes a short shaft but it's also a jet tunnel hull. A lot of the Lowe mod v boats are short shaft.
 

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Thanks Todd and Jeff - will look at the War Eagles and Lowe. Todd my motor is a 4 cyl 2 stroke. Never heard of duck racers, assuming duck hunters want to get to the blinds quickly. Where are you so if I want to sell I'll post it up there. Not much interest in it here in MS.
 

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