The thing to remember is what Yodaddy said. "The hull speed" is around 7mph. For those that don't understand that, he means that as a displacement hull (Not counting, tide, current, wind or other outside forces) the most you'll be able to do is around 7 mph, no matter what size engine you mount. As you come up on plane, and less of the hull is in the water, your speed will increase, but if you cannot get on plane then count on about 7mph tops.

For me, I run a Honda 9.9 4-stroke as my kicker. But I just aquired a Mercury 9.8 2-stroke long shaft electric start. Since it matches my Merc 200's cowl I think I'm going to switch and use the Honda just for fresh water. I like the 9.9 size speed, it's just about perfect for trolling in a V.

Ok I just learned something new. What size kicker would be good for use offshore where I might encounter strong winds and current if I have to use it to come in due to a main engine failure? At what point is it overkill and am churning water for nothing?

I do offshore (30+ miles) in a V20 and have a 15 hp kicker. Had a main engine breakdown one time 10-12 miles out in wind and chop, and with the kicker at times we were only making 3kts headway, but made it home. A pusher prop also helps a lot.

Problem is most of them 9.5's come rigged to push a fat lil' tubby sailboat. To move a high performance deep vee like a V20 you need to look at getting a hydraulic jack plate and a SS cleaver prop along with a nose cone and low water pickup as well as some other lower end mods. Also remove the little drilled plastic plate off the carb and replace it with a big *** funnel to act as a cold air ram intake. This works well because you can also take a can of aerosol whipped cream (or two or three) and spray it inverted into the funnel while running. The Nitrous Oxide (NO2) propellant (unfortunately known as NOS because of rice racers) will add about 50HP and the residual milk and butterfat content provides the necessary additional cooling and lubrication to prevent detonation and the melting of aluminum piston faces. One 16 OZ can of whipped cream contains about 100 grams of fat so we call this a "100 shot". BTW, we have never even tried the non-fat version because, well just because everyone knows it would suck.

Put some Japanese kanji decals on the cowling for about 50 extra HP and drill some speed holes in the prop, turn your baseball cap 'round backwards and hang on.

Just sayin' but the guys over on Skreem n' Flee .com will back me up I bet. I have heard you can get about the same numbers as a Merc 150 Opti easy.