The initial post sought advice regarding twin engine re-powering:
Jetfishin wrote:...Why twins? Never had a boat with twins.
For about five years I owned a pair of 1987 Yamaha 70-HP 850-cc three-cylinder classic two-stroke engines on a 20-foot Boston Whaler hull. They were nice engines, and I believe they are still on that boat and still running well with the new owner who bought it from me about ten years (or longer) ago. Setting up an OUTRAGE 18 with those twin 70-HP engine was usually seen in ocean coastal areas, like Key West where you are.
My newer (and larger boat) has a single engine, and I don't miss the twin engines. They always needed attention to get them to run at the same RPM, so you end up playing with the throttle handles all the time you were underway on plane.
As for twin modern engines on an OUTRAGE 18, that has been done, and most notably by Dave B with the famous GAMBLER. GAMBLER had twin E-TEC 90-HP engines. It was really a great boat, and Dave ran it all over the place in big water--big freshwater like Lake Superior, Lake Nipigon (a real wilderness lake with almost no inhabitation), Lake Huron, Lake MIchigan, and it was a wonderful boat. But guess what happened when he wanted to sell it: no one wanted to buy it because there was too much money in the very new modern twin engines. It was actually rather sad, but to get his investment out of the GAMBLER, Dave had to dismantle the boat and sell off the pieces. And I mean the pieces. The engines went first, to separate buyers as I recall. Then the hull and all accessories were parted out, until only a bare hull remained. I mention this because it was a lesson in investing big money into new engines for 30-year-old boats. You may not be able to recover that investment if you decide to sell. There just are not that many buyers out there for an 18-footer with modern twin engines on the transom that cost $20,000 or more.