Hi everyone, new member here, great site, I’ve already learned a lot. I need some advice on what long shaft to get for a boat I’m building.

Some background on me and my duck hunting. I’m in Oregon and this will be my first small sneak box type boat. I have a big inboard sled and normally hunt big water like the Columbia or Willamette rivers. This will be my first marsh type boat. I will be using it in backwater marshes on these rivers and in tidal areas on the coast. I won’t really be using it in the classic mud situations like it looks most of you do, just shallow areas with weeds and flooded areas with floating debris and such.

Here’s a link to the boat I’m building. It is supposed to weigh about 105 lbs and will carry one man and a dog and some amount of decoys and hunting gear.

http://store.devlinboat.com/broadbill.aspx

I’ve been looking at Tye type long shafts and Predator motors. Looks like there are two different suppliers of these Tye long shafts, Swamp Runner and Mud Skipper.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... r&_sacat=0

What is your opinion on these? What HP do you think I should get? Any other brands/suppliers you’d recommend?

I also read on the forum and it looks like Backwater is highly recommended. They look like a great product and are quite a bit more expensive so I’m not sure if I need it for what I’m doing but I’m open to your advice.

So, any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

that boat will scoot around with a 7 HP motor. If it were mine and I had distance to travel in it I would mount one of my straight drive shaft 14 HP motors. If you're not commuting in the boat then you will be perfectly happy with a 7 HP motor. The Thy motors are popular for price alone. They are not built as tough as a conventional American design motor. Do you need a motor for a few hours a season or a lot of hours a season? That is the critera to go by.

Mark F. Cheney

More info, the 13hp is about twice the weight of the 6.5hp, if I don't need the hp i'd like to save the weight but I don't want it to be a dog.

I am a manufacturer of mud motors. However the site here requests that manufactures don't hype their own products so I don't. There is probably 5 MPH difference between a 7 HP and a 14 HP. The 14 HP will push more weight, And yes, the 14 HP motor will weigh twice as much as the 7 HP motor. Your Devlin boat is well designed and will perform nicely with a 7 HP motor. And if it matters you can carry the 7 HP motor and probably can't carry a 14 HP motor. That is a very big factor for most older hunters. Many of my motors are purchased for this reason alone, independent of the 7 HP performance. If you have never had a mud motor you will think that you have died and gone to heaven with your new boat and a 7 HP motor on it.

Mark F. Cheney

Well good or bad I pulled the trigger and ordered the mudmotor kit from Swamp Runner. I went with the 7 HP version to cut weight. I'm new to all this so we'll see how it goes. I'll post back when I get setup and let you know how it's working. Thanks for the input.