OUTRAGE 18—T/T WHALE LURE Owner

[Wellcraft]

Q1: who owns the OUTRAGE 18 T/T WHALE LURE with twin 115-HP engines?

I'm trying to find more information about this setup.

Thanks in advance.

[jimh]

The OUTRAGE 18 is owned by former continuousWave forum participant LHG and his son LCG. I am very familiar with that boat.

I discuss that boat in my account of a Rendezvous from 26 years ago. See

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/rende ... ayTwo.html

Read the material under the heading "The 18-foot OUTRAGE".

I also show details of the engine rigging in an article in the REFERENCE section about engine set-back brackets. See

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... acket.html

The 10-inch engine set-back brackets by Springfield were also used on my REVENGE 20 W-T with twin engines. They were a very good choice as they were relatively light, had a big set back, and could provide a lot of lift. Unfortunately, as I recall, there was a fire at the Springfield plant that made them, and the tooling was lost, resulting in them being no longer available--at least not available 15-years ago.

Fig. 2. Springfield 10-inch setback bracket on continuousWave.

springfield10inchSetBackBracket.jpeg (161.96 KiB) Viewed 890 times

The hydraulic steering used a single ram actuator that was rigged between the engines. On my boat the actuator was mounted onto the port engine, and connected to a drag link to the port engine. A tie bar connected the port engine to the starboard engine. This arrangement put the steering ram actuator in a protected location between the two engines. LHG's boat was rigged with the actuator on the starboard engine.

I believe that the twin Mercury six-cylinder in-line 115-HP engine are no longer powering T/T WHALER LURE. They were moved to another boat in LHG's collection, an OUTRAGE 21, and the OUTRAGE 18 now has twin 90-HP Mercury two-stroke-power-cycle three-cylinder engines, as best as I can recall.

The OUTRAGE 18 with the twin 115-HP was really over-powered, and it was very fast. It essentially never was run with both engines wide open, as it was just too scary. The engines were rigged with three-bladed Mercury LASER II propellers (as best I can recall) and they produced significant lift. As seen below in Figure 1, the boat could run at speed on plane with only a few feet of the hull bottom in contact with the water.

Fig. 1. T/T WHALE LURE on plane in the cold saltwater of the Strait of Georgia. Taken by the author on August 19, 2003, on a very fast 27-mile run from Nanaimo to Secret Cove, British Columbia, Canada. Boat speed in this view about 30-MPH, as the chase boat (my REVENGE 20 W-T with twin 70-HP engines) was close to its maximum speed. Both boats had just topped off all fuel tanks in Nanimo, and were heavily loaded with gear and supplies for the long trip ahead.

T-TWHALELUREonPlane.jpeg (65.36 KiB) Viewed 893 times

ASIDE
In 2003 LHG and I trailered our boats to La Connor, Washington, and spent 12 days cruising the inside passage of Vancouver Island, up to its northern end at Alert Bay, British Columbia. The T/T WHALER LURE (with the twin 115 engines) was LHG's choice for that trip, as it involved about 4,000-miles of highway towing for him (and using two Cadillac Sedan deVille automobiles and three transmissions) and 4,600-miles of highway towing for me. I spent eight days and seven nights on the highway. Automotive fuel was under $2-per-gallon back then. I would never consider making this trip again, as fuel costs for the towing and the wear and tear on the tow vehicle and trailer would be just too much for me now.

[Wellcraft]

Thanks for the information. I sent [LHG] a message through Facebook and Instagram.

I am interested in the same setup—unless I can find an OUTRAGE 20 hull.

[jimh]

My 1987 REVENGE 20 W-T and a similar year OUTRAGE 20 share the same hull design. A nice feature is the full width engine splash well.