Thanks for all of the advice.

It seems like Yamaha is the brand of choice.

The motor size is now the outstanding question. The boat I am building is a square-ender drift boat. It has less rocker than the usual drift boat and a wide, flat transom that accepts a motor. As a result, when compared with it's rockered cousin, it planes better with a motor without dropping the backend and plowing the water. However, it will still have some of these qualities. So, I'm not sure how much power and weight is too much.

Everyone that I have talked to that has the boat uses a 15hp 2-stroke. I think I'll try to rent one of these, a 15hp 4-stroke and a 25hp 2-stroke and see what works best. Then I'll drop the cash on a Yamaha of that size.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated.

SF