Focus: Modern Outboards

[kurtfalcon]

10q skip. Waiting to hear from him then ;-)

[anglers]

My Trophy is 21ft 6 long and 8ft 1 wide. With its tank full of petrol it weighs 3 tons. It is powered by a mercury optimax 150. At full speed it does 40 mph. The boat is only 4 months old now. Last September I went out with 3 friends of mine for lampuki and been out for 10 hours. We went 25 miles out, of course not full speed but the first 10 miles and the way back we were doing planing speed. The total bill for fuel was 150 euros, considering the size of the boat I think I did very well. The only drawback compared with a 4 stroke engine is the noise, otherwise very happy.

[kurtfalcon]

Thank you for the info. Do you believe it's cheaper to run than a four stroke?

[anglers]

Cant really say. you have to take in consideration what boat you have. Mercury claims that the 150 optimax consumes less than the 150 verado which is a 4 stroke.

[kurtfalcon]

anglers thank you for giving me knowledge again. You've got a nce boat cause I've seen it on some pics. Sure Thye opti is economical but I personally believe that the verado would have been more fuel efficient since it provides more torque which is surely needed on your boat which is quite large for a 150 hp I believe. Four strokes give more 'push' to the boat. That is why alot of people are choosing four strokes other than inboards nowadays. Two strokes didn't quite provide that push. Therefore I think that a four stroke runs more happily on heavier boats than a two stroke does. Two strokes are than very good when it comes to deep V hulls build for speed. Infact racing boats are still mounted with the racing version of the optis from Mercury Racing. If you see american large centre consoles, they are all mounted with four strokes. It's just my opinion ;-)