12' baja scat cat/75 hp johnson stinger

[john rowley]

I have a 12' baja scat cat tunnel hull boat and I am thinking about putting a 75 hp johnson stinger 15" shaft. Will this boat handle this motor well and if so, how fast would it go? Also, should I run a jack plate and if so, what is the best height and setup for it and best prop? Will this boat be easy to blow over? Thanks!

[Gladhe8er]

I grew up with a Baja Scat Cat with a 35 Merc. Granted, I knew nothing about set-up, but it handled like crap. The stock aluminum prop would cavitate too bad so we had a custom chopper prop made for it. To get the boat on plane I had to lay on the bow with the steering wheel between my knees at WOT. Then I had to mosey on back into the seat. Once on plane, it would ride so bow heavy you could feel the friction of the water. Running in LI Sound, I stuffed the boat dozens of times. One time I stuffed it so bad the water hit the motor with such force it stalled it out. I also lost my sunglasses in that stuff. I spent 1/2 hour pumping the water out.

I have heard in recent years that jackplates and power trim are very helpful on these boats. I just had the 35 Merc fixed to the transom. One other similar Scat Cat I saw had a 3/4" spaces on top of the transom to raise the motor a bit. My boat ran about 30 MPH into the wind...25 with a tailwind. Good luck with your project...it will take a lot of playing around with set-up to get the boat to work correctly, but I have heard of some of them actually working like they should...mine did not!

[stvhelm]

i had a 80hp merc on my scat. it just about threw itself out of the water when planing off. and 2 people no problem at all. i had a 50 evinrude before that and that was horrible like the other guy with the 35. you need to do major reinforcing glass work to the hull and transom if you expect it to live long with big power.

[Baja16]

DO IT... I had one (my first boat) and always wanted to put a SST60 on it... Mine had at first a 84' 35hp Evinrude then upgraded to a 91' 50hp Evinrude. Both motors ran well, somebody cut the transom down around 1''-1.5'' and i never had problems with planing and prop slippage.

[mr_velocity]

I have a short shaft stinger on my 13' funcat complete with a jack plate and power trim (you can use the transom bracket from a Yamaha Pro 50 to get ptt). Go for it!!!

[keyssr]

i have a scat cat with a 40 rud it runs like 45mph i need to do the transom and i want to put a 70 rud on it
http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu187/keyssr/th_012.jpg (http://s646.photobucket.com/albums/uu187/keyssr/?action=view&current=012.flv)