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Thanks for your insights. I have seen other Ventura's around the same year with Honda 130's so I think it could be the original motor. It only had 150 hours on the clock which is suspiciously low for a 14 year old boat but I don't really trust the clocks anyway. The motor though starts easily and runs very smooth, no vibration and doesn't seem like it's not running on all cylinders. Once it planes I trim it up and the RPM's go up. I try t keep it trimmed up high until it cavitates or the boat porpoises. Generally the boat is heavy and it is very sensitive to added weight, either people, fuel or both. As a newbie I guess I am surprised at how much difference a few hundred pounds makes. The manual say 150hp is max for the boat but I would think it could handle a lot more.