Did ya go with an HO or regular? Im an Xpress dealer and we hand etec on Xpress as well so if your ever up in Alexandria area give us a call. Real Deal Marine. Im glad to see Evinrude finally getting all the props its deserves . We wish you the best and glad you chose an Etec

I bought an Etec 25 tilt n trim in december, Have ZERO Complaints! Great on Gas, great power and torque and uses very little oil and! No problems to this date and I take my boat out 1-3 times a week (sometimes a lil more) Glad to hear there is another satisfied owner in the Etec family!

I bough the Reg. 115 the HO would have been more than I needed. Coming from a 90 to a 115 is more than satisfying enough,I'm very happy with the motor and the power. I had the chance to run next to another smaller Xpress with a Mercury 125 he was at WOT and i was only turning 4200 rpm and I keep about 5 boat length ahead for a good 3 miles before getting to the launch. I will be unable to run it now for some time after this Friday, so I ran the self Fogging feature, very EZ and did it in Less than a min. Man I really love this motor!!!!!

I have a smaller boat that I'm thinking of putting the 15 HO on it 14 52,I think that motor is the same as the 25 HP. How is the 25 running,do you find it pushes your boat harder than others in that class? What size boat is it on? I'm not quite sure why they came out with the HO, but I guess every one need that Little extra.

I'm running the Electric start,long shaft power tilt'n trim 25 (bigger and heavier than a short shaft think 20-40lbs) on a 1648 alweld v-hull (to the transom not mod v), I run alone 90% of the time and have yet to gps it with just me and a load, With myself and my girlfriend I have seen 30mph trimmed out properly.
When I run solo I dont peg it out but I can tell I'm running around 30mph this isnt trimmed out perfect either I have yet to mount my remote trim switch and I use a tiller extension that makes it difficult to trim it just right while driving.
This is also with the stock prop.
I dont make very long trips and spend alot of time in the shallows, So I went with the 25 to stay as light as possible

If I remember correctly they regulate the HO engines to have up to like 8hp difference, mainly so you can get that extra bit of hp on a boat rated for less (say a 15hp rated boat but you get the HO so you can have more 'legally')

You can find out more info on other forums along with this one http://www.etecownersgroup.com/

If you have any more questions send me a message, I can send you a pic of my boat and motor setup so you know exactly what I'm working with.

It's the 15 HO or a 23 HP Gator Tail, but thats on hold for now wasn't expecting the Yamaha to give out. Good luck with your fixings of the boat and yes I would like to see what your working with,any reason to why you went with the long shift?

I went with the long shaft because the hull I chose only came with 20' transom or they would have had to cut it down some when building the boat so the short shaft motor would fit properly. I went ahead with the taller transom and long shaft since I do fish in 10-15 mph winds sometimes and dont like the idea of taking a wave over the transom.
Gonna try to get some pics to your inbox..

Posting these here so i dont have to upload then email them to ya..also may help some other out.

.

That's a nice rig you have, where are you fishing out of, I like to fish mostly out of Montegut hitting the Marsh there.
A note on putting a different propeller than what you have, the only way to really get it right and have your motor work at it's full potential is to install a RPM gauge. Seeing where you are on rpm's will help you make the correct choice on a prop. Trust me I bought several for the Yam. till I got it in the sweet spot. Talking to some one that knows a thing or two about propellers and with the rpm readings can really save you time and money. After years of tinkering with this I've grown pretty good at it, not calling my self an expert either, every boat is different. Bottom line is what are the RPM's reading that's the first and only step, period.

I mainly fish Calcasieu Lake and Prien Lake/Lake Charles. I live in LC. If you see the console I've got mounted on the grab bar, that's where ill be mounting my remote trim and also will be putting a tachometer on there next to my fish finder. I'm pretty sure evinrude has a prop program and when buying one of their aftermarket props you can keep swapping them out until you find the right one for your needs so ill try to do that. Thanks for complimenting the boat