Commonsense Required!

[Guest]

I currently own a 14' Shakespear speedboat with an 80hp Mercury *longshaft* outboard. We use it mainly for waterskiing and fishing on the southwest coast of the UK.
The Shakespear hull is, frankly, beyond repair and I'd like to upgrade to a slightly larger hull with a cabin. I've been offered a 'Shetland Scorpio' hull for 600ukp but understand that it previously used a *shortshaft* outboard.

Picture of offered hull is at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/stephenhb/boat.jpg

Could someone lend me their commonsense in answering the following questions:
* Can we fit our longshaft outboard to this hull using some kind of modification? If so, roughly how? (...or who?, how much?)
* SHOULD we fit our 80hp outboard to this boat? That planing cathedral hull looks right for some power, or am I completely mad and likely to kill myself?

Any comments gratefully received!

 

[byron]

I'm not qualified to answer the question about the outboard transfer but I can say this. The Shetland will give you a far harder ride than your Shakeybill.
£600 sounds about right but there are tons of bargains about in that size of boat so I wouldn't rush into it. You might do better.

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[Dave_Snelson]

You can probably do better IMHO. The shetland shown isn't my favourite and not suitable for your Merc 80. You would probably be better off with the 575 version (I think its 575, anyway its the one up from the 535). If your heart is set on Shetland (and no reason why not, theyr'e great boats) visit the shetland web site http://www.shetlandboats.co.uk or try another excellent site for that type of boat, which is http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk. 575 relates to the length in metres.

Happy hunting

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice!