Jack Plates

My aluminum fishing boat is a 14′ Lund deep/wide rated for a 35hp outboard. But it has a 15″ (actually measures 16″) transom that is made for a short shaft motor. I may have an opportunity to get a good deal on a 25 hp long shaft motor that would have some nice upgrades – electric start, forward mounted shift lever, tiller mounted tether/kill switch, plus a nearly 70% increase in power. I previously turned this motor down simply due to the long shaft, but now that my 15 is down until I get the lower unit repaired, I am seriously considering it.

I don’t want a bigger boat, so I would have to mount the long shaft on a Jack Plate for proper motor height on my current boat. Are there any drawbacks to Jack Plates? Any reason not to go that route?

If you don’t want the extra weight or setback of a jackplate you can run static riser plates from cmc.

Weight can be an issue on a smaller boat. My jack plate is 50lbs. Also, maybe the cost of adding a jack plate and the “great deal” on a long shaft motor isn’t such a great deal anymore.

The reason I would like to use a Jack Plate over a simple riser, is it will allow me to adjust my motor height once mounted. And I was looking at the cheap versions that are somewhere between a big boat Jack Plate and a riser, definitely not a hydraulic or anything like that – should only add around 15 lbs of weight. The setback is minimal, and would actually add some extra clearance between the tiller handle and my seat.

I’ve never run a Jack Plate except on a mini-hydroplane that a friend had when we were kids, so my main concern is that the Jack Plate wouldn’t have a negative effect on performance/handling or durability.