18 horse on a 1448?

So I bought a boat last week that ended up coming with a 1960 18 HP Evinrude Fastwin. The boat was only a 12' sea scamp so you can imagine how energetic that boat would have been with an 18 on the back.

I am buying what I have been told is a 1448 with seats and a trolling motor for $500. SO now the real question is whether or not a 18HP would adequately drive the flat/semiV hull of the 1448?

I just ordered a fuel pump to convert motor to one fuel line so I should have it running soon. Hopefully before the boat gets in the shop and the real work starts......

I would think a good running 18hp should push it pretty good. What is the max hp rating?

Will push the Hell out of it!
I ran my 1957 18hp on my 15'6" fiberglass Gheenoe classic. Light load it will hit 27mph.

My dad had a 20 hp on a 1436 flat and it hauled butt. That's with me and him and a fair amount of fishing gear and a trolling motor with 2 batteries. Idk an exact mph but empty it would go faster than I wanted to go in it.

My old 7.5hp would plane my 1448 with me and gear, and if pops and I sat right with both of us. I'd imagine a 18 hp would do the same. For some reason I was thinking max on a 1448 was somewhere around 25 anyway, but I could be wrong. Put it on there and get your weight situated right and you'll be flying just fine.

Right on, thanks for the input guys. I'm going to attempt to install the fuel pump tomorrow and hopefully have it running this weekend. Anyone else here converted a dual air/fuel line to a single fuel? The idea of drilling and tapping virgin 55 year old engine block makes me cringe.

It looks like my coworker completely mis-described the boat. It is a 14' but, its a semi V and from the photos looks like it might be a 40" but definitely not a 4 footer. I'm kind of committed to buy it so hopefully she ain't too skinny!

I need to come up with a reliable tin boat capable of hauling me and camping/fishing gear into Canada via the Kootenai River. The trip is the last week in July so I still have a bit of time to build and scheme.

Has anyone here ever done a 170 mile (roundtrip) jaunt in a small aluminum? Id love your input on how to build a 14-16' craft capable of doing fairly serious lake trout fishing(downriggers) and also hauling me and provisions for a 8-12 day outing.

This site is awesome.

Well I can't say as though I've ever done a long trip in a tinny, but I've done some long river trips of the whitewater kind. All I can say is pack light and ziplock baggies inside dry bags are your friends. Keeping the boat light is a big help. As far as big lake trout, again keep it light so have the freeboard when the wind picks up. Having the semi v front will help some but the waves on western reservoirs can get big quick. I've never used down riggers, instead I've just used lead core line, but I don't see why you couldn't put down riggers on the back corners, or fabricate a bar across the back similar to what the catfisherman use on their boats to mount them to. Good luck!

convert from 2 line fuel to 1 line.

Yes, I have done this. It is easy and effective. I use a simple pressure pulse pump that can be purched off ebay for less than $10 (a pump labled "marine" at a cost of 3-5 times can also be used). Cap the fuel line pressure connection and take the pump pulse off a fitting attached to the bypass cover.

If you need some pics lemme know.

That's a lot of travel time in a boat that small even assuming you have smooth sailing. Have you ever done this trip before and do you know what to expect in terms of camping spots, fuel supply and such.

Tallpine said:

That's a lot of travel time in a boat that small even assuming you have smooth sailing. Have you ever done this trip before and do you know what to expect in terms of camping spots, fuel supply and such.

Click to expand...

Ive run a 16 mile stretch of this river up to the Canadian Border twice from Bonner's Ferry. It sucks because the fishing gets really good just as Border Patrol starts hollering to turn your *** around.... I'm not first-hand familiar with the Canadian side but talking to some locals and Canadians makes it seem fairly straight forward. Should be lots of shore camping by then, especially with the ridiculously small snow-pack we got this year.

I should probably mention at this point that I will be following a 1752 with a 50 hp on it that concerns me a bit about fuel. It also has a 24 gallon fuel cell. From what Ive been told and can mostly confirm on the internet, there arent any jaunts between available gas much longer than 30 miles. He (my father) can haul a lot of the heavier stuff and I'm mostly hauling a large tent and fishing gear. I figure 2 6 Gallon cans will easily cover that distance with plenty of margin for error. I read the 18hp eats about 2 gallons an hour at cruise, I wont need nearly that much rpm to push the 14' at 8-10mph.

This will be my longest small craft trip. Ive done some 40 mile days in and out of the Chesapeake Bay in a 13' Whaler but that's pretty open water. Even most of the brackish rivers had good depth and little to collide with, aside from other boaters. The Kootenai river winds and deepens and shallows and has rocks and crayfish in it. I secured 2 weeks off work so there really isn't a huge rush to get to Kootenay Lake. 4 days up and 4 days back would still give us 6 days on the Lake. I don't think 30 miles a day is pushing it much.

Maybe I'm being Naive about this so please let me know if there is a part of my thought process that I need to reconsider.


Heres a few pics of that 12 footer that I think I'm done messing with (For now). I beefed the hell out of the Transom with some .125 6061 Plate and new wood, to make running the 18 hp a little more feasible. Im thinking of further bracing the transom to the gunwales with some 1" tube, not real sure that's necessary yet. I need to extend the cables on the transom trolling motor so I can get the battery right up in the nose. That, along with a cooler and anchor, will probably keep the front end down(I think). The previous owner stated he had to put his grandson as far forward as possible to use more than 1/3 throttle. This should be fun....

Sounds like you have a pretty good plan. At least you wont be traveling alone. Having another boat along for support makes all the difference. Sounds like a great adventure and I hope you have a good time!

One very important thing to remember here. The 1960 engine is still a 24:1 oil ratio engine regardless of the single or double line system. Running that engine on less than that ratio will drastically shorten the service life of the engine. Makes no difference if Billy Bob or Bubba tell you the oils of today are "way better".

THe Canadians shut down the river border crossing, no Canada trip. We are instead gonna spend a few weeks camping and fishing around lake Pend O' reille.

Got an email from the boats original owner, he found the gas tank for the 2 line system. Maybe I can sell it and recoop some of the money spent on the conversion. That 18 about killed my shoulder today pulling on it, so now I'm shopping for elec start parts...... I need to rebuild carb though.

That's too bad MM. At least you will be on the water somewhere.