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Subscribed to this thread, since I will soon be facing the same issue with the 1972 21’ Ribside I am restoring. I bought it with an old Merc 175 V-6 but it was non-operational so I never actually ran the boat before starting the restoration project.

I was actually thinking of repowering with a single 4-stroke Merc 115. Obviously no problem with the weight of that motor. I want the engine to look proportional to the boat and I think this motor will do that. I think the 115, especially in H.O. trim (or whatever Merc calls it), should be enough power to easily plane this hull, and I don’t care about top speed.