I think this is good info.
By Shawn (skuhleman).
"This summer we sold a 16ft fiberglass fishing boat with a 75hp evinrude and trailer for 1200, it pulled my 230lbs butt on a wakeboard fine, and didn't seem to have trouble holding 22 with me back there."
This sort of gives you a Hp size that might be powerful enough for a boat with how many friends, ??? .... and still tow.
And then furthermore by Shawn (skuhleman).
"Here in texas I have seen a few running I/Os with a rotted floor go for 1k. Toss a couple pieces of plywood down and you would have a boat that can actually give you a wake to jump."
You might find that to be true yourself, and while I'm not seeing many things that low on the market here, I'm seeing pretty close.
am not convinced about this.
Todd.
"I would stay away from a 4 stroke. In the smaller sizes they are heavy and not as quick or powerful as a 2 stroke."
Two strokes are p.i.t.a.s. You play with oil every fuel up, eventually you'll have a mess with a spill. Two stroke engines at idle sound like a bunch of gears being shaken like a Martini. And they smoke. Some people don't mind second-hand smoke. But really, out on the lake where there is often a light refreshing breeze, you want to sit in a cloud of smoke? The Peanuts character Pig-pen was meant to be ridiculous. Is that how you want your boating day to be?
So again,
According to Todd
"I would stay away from a 4 stroke. In the smaller sizes they are heavy
[that's fine]
and not as quick
[I don't know if that is true but, so what, you want torque]
or powerful as a 2 stroke."
[ what ??? So, if a 15 Hp 2 stroke is compared to a 4 stroke of the same rating, does it only produce 14.696 Hp ??!? ]
This is probably likely.
Ron (Nordicron)
"no way you touch a 4-stoke motor for the money your looking at spending."
Also, regarding a small matter,
the small boats are "Jon" boats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_boat
Jonathan ("John") Bay