Boat Horsepower by Length and Type: What Listings State
GetBoat Blog
Listings for motor yachts between 41 and 50 ft long state a median of 600 hp in the GetBoat catalogue; listings for sailing yachts of the same length state 57 hp, a ratio of 10.5 to one. In every band of the table below, from 20–25 ft to 81 ft and over, the median for motor yachts is higher than the median for sailing yachts.
These figures come from the GetBoat catalogue on 30 September 2026: 102,822 live listings that state a length above zero and an engine power between 5 and 20,000 hp. They record stated horsepower, and they show that a figure for a given length means little until the type of boat is known.
Horsepower by boat type and length
The table gives the median stated horsepower for each length band, split by boat type. The lower and upper quartiles follow in brackets, and n is the number of live listings in the cell. Cells with fewer than 60 listings are shown as a dash.
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| Length | Motor yacht, hp | Sailing yacht, hp | Catamaran, hp |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20–25 ft | 150 (115–225), n 12,987 | 8 (6–10), n 461 | — |
| 26–30 ft | 300 (230–320), n 5,572 | 14 (9–20), n 1,022 | — |
| 31–35 ft | 320 (220–500), n 3,179 | 27 (20–29), n 4,341 | 43 (28–176), n 108 |
| 36–40 ft | 460 (300–600), n 3,447 | 40 (29–40), n 6,909 | 58 (40–80), n 3,656 |
| 41–50 ft | 600 (350–870), n 4,519 | 57 (51–75), n 16,633 | 90 (57–114), n 8,324 |
| 51–60 ft | 960 (669–1,460), n 2,214 | 101 (76–110), n 3,599 | 150 (80–160), n 1,616 |
| 61–80 ft | 1,640 (900–2,400), n 2,075 | 180 (141–220), n 406 | 300 (162–470), n 563 |
| 81 ft and over | 1,950 (769–3,562), n 154 | 403 (260–570), n 360 | — |
The median is the central value of the listings in a cell: at least half of the listings sit at or below it, and at least half sit at or above it. The quartiles bracket the middle half of the listings in the cell.
Two smaller categories also have filled cells. Listings tagged simply as Boat give 200 hp at 20–25 ft, 300 hp at 26–30 ft, 440 hp at 31–35 ft and 500 hp at 36–40 ft. Motor yachts give 150, 300, 320 and 460 hp in the same four bands. Fishing boat listings give 150 hp at 20–25 ft and 300 hp at 26–30 ft, the same medians as motor yachts in those two bands. Catamaran medians sit between the two main types in each band where the cell is filled, from 31–35 ft to 61–80 ft: 58 hp at 36–40 ft against 460 hp for motor yachts and 40 hp for sailing yachts.
Why one curve for all boats misleads
If you ignore boat type and look at stated horsepower against length alone, the line breaks at 31 ft. The rows group listings by the recorded length value; the first row, under 20 ft, includes 1,229 sailing yacht and catamaran listings whose length is recorded in metres.
| Length | Listings | Median hp | Quartiles, hp | hp per ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 ft | 12,172 | 40 | 30–90 | 2.5 |
| 20–25 ft | 14,728 | 150 | 115–225 | 7.1 |
| 26–30 ft | 7,504 | 250 | 95–300 | 9.6 |
| 31–35 ft | 8,420 | 30 | 23–300 | 0.9 |
| 36–40 ft | 14,818 | 45 | 30–114 | 1.2 |
| 41–50 ft | 30,410 | 60 | 55–110 | 1.4 |
| 51–60 ft | 7,621 | 112 | 80–600 | 2.1 |
| 61–80 ft | 3,844 | 900 | 300–2,000 | 12.9 |
| 81–100 ft | 1,671 | 1,220 | 450–3,000 | 13.9 |
| 101 ft and over | 1,634 | 1,491 | 825–3,000 | 10.7 |
The all-boats median falls from 250 hp at 26–30 ft to 30 hp at 31–35 ft, below the 150 hp of the 20–25 ft band, and stays under 150 hp until the 61–80 ft band. The composition of the fleet changes in the 31–35 ft band. There the catalogue holds 4,341 sailing yacht listings against 3,179 motor yacht listings, and between 41 and 50 ft it holds 16,633 against 4,519. In those bands sailing yacht listings are the majority, and a sailing yacht's engine is auxiliary, so the all-boats median reflects the composition of the sample.
One engine or two
The next table takes the working pool and keeps the listings that state between one and six engines; it starts at 20–25 ft. In the bands shown, the share of listings with one engine stays above half up to 60 ft. The share of listings with two engines rises with length overall, from 1.2% at 20–25 ft to 40.2% at 51–60 ft.
| Length | Listings | One engine | Two engines | Three or more | Median hp, one | Median hp, two |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–25 ft | 8,953 | 98.8% | 1.2% | 0.0% | 150 | 190 |
| 26–30 ft | 5,125 | 85.5% | 14.4% | 0.1% | 250 | 300 |
| 31–35 ft | 5,570 | 79.3% | 20.6% | 0.1% | 29 | 315 |
| 36–40 ft | 7,736 | 66.9% | 32.5% | 0.6% | 40 | 230 |
| 41–50 ft | 15,422 | 69.0% | 30.0% | 1.0% | 57 | 118 |
| 51–60 ft | 4,043 | 59.4% | 40.2% | 0.4% | 110 | 600 |
| 61–80 ft | 2,180 | 44.8% | 54.1% | 1.1% | 320 | 1,250 |
| 81 ft and over | 1,673 | 39.7% | 58.8% | 1.5% | 450 | 1,300 |
The crossover sits in the 61–80 ft band, where 54.1% of these listings carry two engines and 44.8% carry one. At 81 ft and over the share of listings with two engines is 58.8%. Listings with three or more engines reach 1.5% at most, in the 81 ft and over band. At 31–35 ft, listings with one engine state a median of 29 hp and listings with two engines state 315 hp.
Power per foot by build period
For this table we took listings of 26–40 ft in three categories, motor yacht, sailing yacht and catamaran, and grouped them by build period. Each row sets groups of boats built in different periods side by side and compares stated horsepower per foot of length between them. Comparing build periods across a mix of categories gives a false trend, so each row stays within one category.
| Category | 1980–1999 | 2000–2009 | 2010–2019 | 2020–2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor yacht, median hp | 218 (n 1,113) | 300 (n 1,822) | 300 (n 2,324) | 300 (n 3,946) |
| Motor yacht, hp per ft | 6.57 | 9.72 | 10.00 | 10.74 |
| Sailing yacht, hp per ft | 0.82 (n 1,281) | 0.83 (n 2,123) | 0.79 (n 4,246) | 0.83 (n 3,224) |
| Catamaran, hp per ft | 0.79 (n 62) | 1.49 (n 204) | 1.53 (n 1,128) | 1.54 (n 1,928) |
Motor yacht listings built in 2020–2026 show 63% more power per foot than those built in 1980–1999. For catamarans, the 1980–1999 group shows 0.79 hp per foot and the 2020–2026 group 1.54, with most of the difference between the 1980–1999 and 2000–2009 groups. Sailing yacht listings show 0.82 hp per foot for 1980–1999 and 0.83 for 2020–2026.
What is listed on boats under 30 ft
This section takes listings by their recorded length value, below 30 ft, in five categories: motor yacht, sailing yacht, catamaran, Boat and Fishing boat. The selection includes some of the sailing yacht and catamaran listings whose length is recorded in metres; we did not count how many. Among those listings, 31,399 state an engine power between 5 and 400 hp. Grouped into bands of unequal width, the largest band is 151–250 hp, with 22.0% of those listings. Then come 116–150 hp at 15.1%, 76–115 hp at 14.2% and 31–50 hp at 14.1%. Small values make up a sizeable share of the listings: 5–10 hp accounts for 6.3%, 11–20 hp for 6.4% and 21–30 hp for 5.7%. The remaining bands are 51–75 hp at 5.2% and 251–400 hp at 11.0%.
Among listings that state between 5 and 60 hp, a few repeated values are the most frequent. A 40 hp figure appears on 3,705 listings, 15 hp on 1,559, 30 hp on 1,450, 6 hp on 921 and 60 hp on 784. Further down the list, 50 hp has 548 listings, 5 hp 343, 10 hp 329, 20 hp 283, 8 hp 245 and 25 hp 183. If you are weighing up a small engine, our guides to 5 hp outboard motors, the 10 hp outboard class and 30 hp outboards for small boats walk through the choices in each of those bands. For the larger end of the sub-30 ft listings, the 150 hp outboard guide covers the top of the 116–150 hp band, the second-largest slice of those listings.
How to use these numbers
- Compare with listings of the same type and length band. The all-boats median at 31–35 ft is 30 hp and the motor yacht median at the same length is 320 hp. The figure for your own type and band is the one to compare with.
- Read the quartiles as the middle half. For motor yachts of 41–50 ft, the middle half of the listings lies between the lower and upper quartiles, 350 and 870 hp. The range describes the listings and sets no technical limit.
- For the aggregates in this article, read the horsepower figure as the whole installation. That is the working reading behind every table here, and the method section below explains the check behind it; a single listing may still give the power of one engine.
- Read the table for power, not for fit. A figure from the table says how much power listings of your type and length band state. Whether a given engine will sit properly on your boat, shaft length included, is a separate question. Our guide to the correct shaft length for an outboard motor covers it.
- Judge a sailing yacht by its own column. In the 26–40 ft band, sailing yacht listings show between 0.79 and 0.83 hp per foot across all four build periods. Our guide to electric inboard motors for sailboats covers one of the current options.
- Check the live listings. The catalogue at getboat.com/boats shows live listings for boats of the size you have in mind.
How we measured
The pool is the GetBoat catalogue on 30 September 2026: 202,356 live listings, of which 107,696 (53.2%) state an engine power and 194,627 state a length above zero. The working pool for this article is the 102,822 listings that state both a length above zero and an engine power between 5 and 20,000 hp. We dropped one listing above 20,000 hp and 1,602 listings below 5 hp. Engine count is filled in on 61,528 of all live listings (30.4%); the one-or-two table keeps the listings in the working pool with a count from one to six, and n in each row gives their number.
In the length-band tables, a band labelled A–B ft holds lengths from A ft up to just under B+1 ft; 101 ft and over holds every length from 101 ft. The build-period table takes lengths from 26 ft to 40 ft inclusive. Horsepower per foot is the median, across listings, of each listing's stated power divided by its stated length.
Two traps shaped the method. First, the length field mixes feet and metres. We checked the numeric length against the length written in the description and found 17,220 listings in the working pool confirmed in feet. In the 31–60 ft bands, which hold 60% of the pool, the medians of this feet-confirmed sub-pool differ from the full-pool medians by 3–13%, the spread we measured there. We ran the check in every band. Above 60 ft and below 26 ft the two medians diverge more widely. Under 20 ft the full pool gives 40 hp against 60 hp in the feet-confirmed sub-pool, and at 20–25 ft it gives 150 against 175 hp. Under 20 ft, 1,229 of the 12,172 listings are sailing yachts and catamarans whose length is recorded in metres; for that reason the by-type table has no row under 20 ft.
Second, the engine power field can mean one engine or all engines together. We compared it with 1,087 descriptions that spell out the installation as a number of engines at a stated power each, allowing a difference of up to 6%. In 867 cases, 79.8%, the field matched the sum; in 193 cases, 17.8%, it matched a single engine. Throughout this article the figure is therefore read as total installed power.
The largest single source contributes 21,151 listings, about 21% of the working pool. The feet-confirmed sub-pool is used as a check and never as a base, because 68.6% of it comes from one source.
What this article leaves out: there is no split between outboard and inboard drives, because the catalogue has no reliable field for it. There are no figures for individual boats, engine brands or models. And the numbers describe listings in our catalogue, so they are a record of what is listed, not a rule for what to fit.
