Motor weight question

[Dan P]

I have a 15 ft fiber glass center counsel boat. It’s a 1982 privateer in excellent condition. I put a few fiberglass floor in it a couple years ago. It has a 1978 mercury 70hp engine on it. The engine needs over $1000 of work so it figured it was time for a newer one. I’m trying to figure out how much weight it can handle. My current motor weighs about 230 lbs. I’ve found a mercury 75 hp 4 stroke that weighs about 380 lbs. The HP should be fine but I’m concerned about the extra weight? To add to the problem I just got an 80 lb kicker. Can the boat handle this extra weight. Of course I’ll be calling my mechanic today but was just trying to get some feedback. 

[NETBOY101]

On boats less than 20 feet in length with no capacity plate, use the following rule of thumb to calculate the number of persons (weighing 150 pounds each, on average) the boat can carry safely in good weather conditions.

Number of people = (boat length (ft.) × boat width (ft.))÷15

For example, for a boat 18 feet long by 6 feet wide, the number of persons is 18 times 6 (or 108) divided by 15, which equals seven 150-pound persons (or a total person weight of 7 × 150, or 1050 pounds).



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[lrg355]

Yamaha F70LA, fuel injected four stroke weighs 257 lbs. It is lighter than the old 2 strokes.

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[NETBOY101]

Around the same a 70hp is 253lb