What size battery for an 8 foot boat with 50lb minn kota

Hi all,

I have just picked up an 8 foot fibreglass boat which weighs around 30-35kg and have matched it to a 50lb Minn Kota.

My question is what size battery will be sufficient for me and my 5yo son to fish Wivenhoe dam for the day? We will only be using the minn Kota to get to our fishing spot then throw some lures around for a few hours then move to a few other spots.

If I was to also troll some lures how much bigger should the battery be?

Any info or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers mike

Piece of string. Motor speed being a big one. I used to troll a bit for barra in a Canadian canoe with a 55lb riptide at half throttle and get a couple of hours out of an 85ah battery. Those numbers dropped quickly if I wanted to crank it up a bit. Short fat boats are generally more inefficient to push around due to displacement and waterline length calcs. I would think a couple of 100 ah's might get you a decent morning on the water with a bit up your sleeve to get home without rowing too much?

100 to 120 ah should do. But i would go bigger if space and weight are not an issue.

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8 foot boat, motor, oars, battery, two POB, fishing gear - You will be missing 2 things - room and freeboard at a guess. A lot of those small glass dinghies are pretty unstable as well. Personally I wouldn't be going too far from where you launch and wear your lifejackets.

I use a 120 amp deep cycle on a 4.2m WBDORY, in pretty windy conditions it has worked from 5:30 am till lunch time non stop and was down to 12.1V which will give it still more hours of use. But as Scottar mentions space and weight become a factor, your MK is around 14 kg, the battery comes in at 36 kg so you've already added the equivalent of a teenager on board. A 100 amp will be around 28 kg or so depending on brand. Still weight and space involved but if you don't have a gas guzzler on the back it is offset somewhat. Check different battery sites for weights as they can vary, I think you could getaway with an Optima yellow top 75 amp DF31A which weighs in at around 27kg but does have a smaller profile and would probably fit better.

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Originally Posted by scottar

8 foot boat, motor, oars, battery, two POB, fishing gear - You will be missing 2 things - room and freeboard at a guess. A lot of those small glass dinghies are pretty unstable as well. Personally I wouldn't be going too far from where you launch and wear your lifejackets.

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My boy happens to like his 8 footer very much. Being a cat it is more stable than a 12 foot tinny. Somewhat less freeboard when his old man jumps in with him - It won't plane with the two of us either so he doesn't invite me in very often :-?