Evinrude ETEC Video Review

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The Evinrude ETEC website has some great videos demonstrating the power and features of their engines but it was in my opinion missing one very important video test......Twin Engined boat, single engine planing test.

Most people can accept that having twin outboards on a boat makes for a safer and easier to manouveur boat with better handling characteristics....if one goes you have the other to rely on. However I also know that there are those that believe that if in the event of an engine failure, unless the other engine can take you home at a reasonable speed on the plane, all you actually have is a very expensive large auxillary engine!!

Engine Option 1 - Single 250hp engine and a 15hp auxillary - loose the main engine and you'll probably do 6-8 knots depending on conditions coming home.
Engine Option 2 - Twin 130hp engines - loose the main engine and if the remaining engine can only push you at say 8 knots....well aside from handling what was the point of two large engines which result in higher maintenance costs, more weight on the boat, without going into the issue about costs, and indepedent fuel systems, battery systems etc for true redundancy.

During the ORIS Alongi competition we decided to explore this issue on board the RLR Yachting 8.5m Zodiac Pro Open powered by two Evinrude ETEC 200hp

Test Setup:
Boat: Zodiac PRO Open 8.5
Engines: 2 x Evinrude ETEC 200hp
Fuel On Board: 400 Litres
Persons on Board: 5
Water: 100 Litres

These engines are the narrow 60 degree V6 engines which is why they don't look at all cramped on the back of the RIB, I was amazing at how quiet they are on start up and idling and so silky smooth - for a 200hp engine I expected a lot more noise. Once running they have a unique roaring sound which I rather liked but I can appreciate that some boat owners might find it annoying over long journeys prefering the quieter 4 strokes.

This boat is capable of close to 50 knots and we spent most of the day running at a fast 24-25 knot cruise at 3100rpm per engine for a total fuel burn of 40 litres per hour which seemed to be her ideal cruise speed, drop it back to 20 knots and the fuel burn dropped to around 36 litres per hour. Given her LOA at 28 feet and the extra heavy duty stainless steel T-Top along with our loadout on the day I found the fuel consumption figures to be very reasonable, these ETEC direct injection engines really do perform.

Evinrude ETECs and Zodiac RIBS are available exclusively in Malta from RLR Yachting www.rlryachting.com and if you're interested give Darius Goodwin a call on +356 21331192

[Jonathan]

Very interesting review - prosit and thanks for sharing! By any chance did you check out the fuel consumption at trolling speed such as somewhere in the region of 6 knots? Also in such a twin outboard boat, would it be manoeuvrable if you were to use only 1 outboard and leave the the other off whilst fishing, or would it be better to use both of them?

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Consumption at 6.8 knots one one engine was around 7 litres per hour when we backed it down to 6.0 knots the figure fell to around 5.9 litres per hour.

Boat has power steering so didn't notice any handling issues on 1 engine, we had the other engine tilted up out the water and I found the boat manoeuvered without any issues and no excessive steering torque that could be felt.

I would troll on one engine do an hour on one engine and then alternate. The engine remained super smooth and quiet for the 30 mins that we test trolled, water temps etc all within parameters.

[suffrun]

Thanks for sharing, interesting write up and enjoyed watching the video.