I was gonna chime in on this but I was trying to locate some old photos first.
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My grandfather purchased 2 Dell Quay Dories in the early 80's. one 11' and one 13'. These boats are sometimes refered to as the English Boston Whaler. The 11' Dory was powered immediately with a 20 merc, which was pretty much my first boat. It was rated for a 33hp. It can just be seen at the left of the first picture. I had a lot of fun in that boat, getting air, jumping the Seafari 25s huge wake
The 13 was never powered and sat upside down on the beach, until 98. Although the boat was rated for a 45hp and my intentions were to get a 40, I chose a 50 Yamaha with power trim. Minimum planing speed was awesome and you could carry on a conversation, without shouting, at cruise. The gentlemen above are correct, 3/4 to full throttle made absolutely no difference in speed. I think the 50 was a little much for the old boat as the hull split open at the keel a few times and I had to keep patching it. The nail in the coffin was the big crack opening up in the transom. The boat only lasted 3 years with the 50. I had enough of patching and put the 50 on a welded aluminum boat. I wish I had known of this site back then cuz I now know what is possible with old boats and kind of wish I still had those Dories.
Brandon