I know it kinda defeats the purpose, but I’m thinking of getting an outboard motor for my Clackacraft driftboat - which is the 16’ low profile model.
Have any of you ever done this? I’d appreciate your advice.
My main concern for the moment is in getting an adequately sized motor for it. There’s a river or two where a motor would be just the ticket to get to some otherwise difficult to access places, and although it could be a bit of a trip, I don’t mind if it takes awhile to get there - and actually prefer slow going as opposed to speeding up the river, making a 10’ wake in all directions. There are also some lakes where it might be nice to use a motorized driftboat, and save the rowing for when I’m going down rivers.
I’ve talked to the people at Clackacraft and they seem to think that a 5hp motor would be adequate. (The boat is Coast Guard rated for up to 10hp.) They also sell an offset kit that’s needed to mount the motor in place of the anchor mount, and can also custom make a prop guard to protect the motor from rocks, etc.
I’ve owned a few drift boats myself, Lot’s of drift boats around here (Great Lakes) with motors on them, comes in handy on Steelhead rivers when you have to motor back up stream. Normally most the time a 5-6hp is just the ticket for the average drift boat. One thing to be sure to measure or ask them is to see if you will need a Long Shaft motor. Because the hull design on drift boats with the up swept stern sometimes requires a long shaft motor to get the prop down in the water at the proper depth.
I have a 15 foot wooden drift boat that I built myself. I deliberately made it to be as lightweight as possible because of local conditions here in MN.
By the standard of my boat, a Clackacraft is very heavy so while a 3 HP we put on my boat was plenty, I’d say 5-7 HP should be fine. I think a 10 HP would be excessive and you’d get tired of carrying all the extra weight around.
One think I really find handy about the small 3 or 4 hp models is you can find them with internal fuel tanks so you don’t have to lug around a remote fuel tank as well. This is reallly nice because for just short blasts of use, they hold plenty of fuel and it’s one less piece of gear to be tripping over in the boat.
John, If you are looking for outboards to compare try this site onlineoutboards.com These are new, however,
you can look over the different sizes and look at the different shaft lengths to get an ides of what you will need.
I have a 16ft+ Hyde with high sides and use an 8 horse long shaft honda outoard. I have not used it in the river— mainly use it when fishing lakes.
I would be a little more careful with a low side— Clackacraft should be able to give you some direction --and limits – on how big a motor you should put on your boat.
Thanks to all of you for your replies. As soon as I leave this website, I’ll check out onlineoutboards.com. I hadn’t thought about the lower sides on my LP boat being a concern, but that is good to keep in mind - particularly considering the type of winds that we have in the places I’d be planning to use a motor on it.
I spent almost an hour yesterday afternoon with 2 brothers who own a local boat dealership near our home in SE PA. They sell both Mercury and Honda motors, but recommended the Mercury motor - I think primarily from a parts and service standpoint.
Interestingly, they recommended the 10hp Mercury - but I think that was as much based on my saying there’d be times that I’d want to go up river for several miles, with up to 3 people in the boat (weighing approx. 600#). However, I’m inclined to opt for the 6hp Mercury, since it’s the same weight as the 5hp, and some 30# less weight than the 10hp, and see how that works out.
They looked at the pictures of Clackacraft’s prop guard on the internet and said that I could fabricate a prop guard from a hay rake that would work even better than Clackacraft’s, and at much less cost, if I felt I wanted one. - Don’t know that I do at this point.
I think the 6 hp Merc is plenty of push unless you want to go up through some really fast rapid water. it is certainly enough weight to lug around. I think your going to be unhappy with the 10 hp from handling the weight and much more gasoline usage.
I would suggest always carrying a spare prop and pins. Your bound to whack it.
Yes, I thought about spare shear pins already. However, the dealers I spoke with yesterday said there is none used on the Mercury outboard - don’t know that I fully understood what they were describing to me - I though they said the prop would slip rather than shear a pin. I will look into this more, as well as a spare prop.
As an aside, I bought a rather expensive big new Honda track-driven snowblower this past winter and promptly broke 2 shear pins (it came supplied with 3 spares). With just one extra shear pin left, and some 18" of snow, you can bet I really watched where I was going from then on! What a way to learn how to use a new machine. I’ve been buying spare shear pins ever since, and actually just bought several more for it this past week even though I shouldn’t need to use them again until next December!
I also have a spare anchor for my driftboat, and never take it with me in the boat - lot of good it’ll do me when I might need it fast!
Relative to the anchor in the drift boat – I saw a drift boat go under last year because free end ot the anchor rope was either tied in a knot or tied to something inside the boat. When they got in trouble, they couldn’t get rid of the anchor and it pulled the boat down. nobody hurt but the drift boat was probably a near total loss.
While I don’t own one personally, I have floated many times in a guide’s low sided Clackacraft with an 8HP outboard on the back. Really handy for motoring through a drift multiple times, or speeding up the run through frog water. Must be done with common sense, but very useful in several of the rivers I have fished with this guide. The vendor’s advice sounds spot on.