Drove over to BassPro in Destin to inquire about re-powering through them. They had the specs for this boat right there, seeing as it's a Tracker SeaCraft.
The 1988 18' Superfisherman is designed to carry up to a 465 lb outboard motor and still be self-bailing. The hull is rated for 150 hp max, and was designed to carry the heaviest 150 in production at the time, the Suzuki DT150CTX, which weighs 465 lbs.
In contrast, according to them, the previous year, which was also Tracker built, was only designed to carry up to 140 hp, and 370 lbs on the transom.
Ed said that although they only sold the 18' pre-rigged for Evinrude and Mercury/Mariner, they actually did sell two of the 18' hulls locally upon which the owners installed the DT150 SuperSick motors, but the "standard" power for this boat when new was either the Evinrude 110 hp V4, or the Mariner 115 hp I-6. Very few saw the Evinrude 140 or 150 loopers, or the Mariner 150.
He then offered to re-power my boat with a 2-year old left-over 135 Optimax counter-rotator for $10,200 out the door, including de-rigging my current power, and also offered me $750 on my running '87 115 Mariner as a trade-in, for a net $9650.
I'm a research nut, (you guys probably know that by now), but after all that, I think I still want a 115.
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Common Sense is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from the other guy's mistakes.
Fr. Frank says:
Jesus liked fishing, too. He even walked on water to get to the boat!
Currently without a SeaCraft 
(2) Pompano 12' fishing kayaks
'73 Cobia 18' prototype "Casting Skiff", 70hp Mercury
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