posted 02-19-2005 01:39 AM ET (US)        

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/cetacea/cetaceaPage80.html

posted 02-19-2005 04:12 AM ET (US)            

Thanks Jim for getting them online as fast as you did.

I wonder what the results will be with the new mid-range Verados. I also wonder whay they made the mounting bracket different on the Mariner compared to the Mercury.

I must say that these Verados look very well engineerd. I just hope they can find their place on some older, classic model boats. I can't wait to see what they will have lined up next year in the 75-115 hp range.

Speaking of Mariner: you used to see quite a few Mariner engines on this side of the Atlantic. This is not the case anymore. In fact I attended the Belgian Boat Show last week and didn't see one Mariner engine displayed.

Talk about surprises...that 320 Outrage cuddy looks HUGE and IMO beautiful. I like the the full width T-top. Can't waite to see some more pictures of the whole boat and how it looks on the water. The teak used in the cuddy is also a nice feature.

Also my compliments to the model featured in some of the pictures.

posted 02-19-2005 12:08 PM ET (US)            

The 125-175 HP Verado outboards are available in 20 and 25-inch shaft lengths. The 25-inch shaft is available in counter rotation models.

The engine is built on a 1.7-liter in-line four-cylinder dual-overhead-cam design, which is quite similar to the larger Verado models. There are four valves per cylinder, and the engine has the "bedplate-and-longbolt" construction seen in Formula-1 race cars. This gives the engine maximum rigidity and durability.

The fuel system is a sequential multi-port electronic injection system for turn-key starts and smooth running.

Mercury says the design is "inherently stable" but they do not mention if there are any balancing shafts. A four cylinder in-line engine is not as inherently smooth as an in-line six cylinder engine.

Special attention has been given to sound dampening, and the result is "an uncommonly quiet engine." If there is one area in which the Verado technology has excelled, it is certainly in their amazingly quiet sound signature.

The engine is also supercharged and has an intercooler. The combination of cooler (more dense) and compressed air being forced into the cylinder gives the Verado instantaneous torque at any speed. Boost pressure is regulated electronically and is varied to suite throttle and engine speed conditions.

Like the larger models, these new engines also have Digital Throttle and Shift (DTS) engine controls. This "fly-by-wire" approach to engine controls give superior feel and control, and is quickly being developed by other manufacturers for their premium model engines.

The new Verado motors also employ Mercury's SmartCraft system of engine gauges and sensors. This digital CAN bus system provides boaters with vessel management and engine operation information in a digital form that permits impressive integration with other digital systems.

All of these four-cylinder engines will ship with Mercury Universal Steering Cylinders for manual hydraulic steering. Electro-hydraulic power steering can also be added as an option. This adds an electrically operated boost pump to the hydraulic system.

These new Verado engines will be assembled at the same Fond du Lac, Wisconsin factory as the larger models. The assembly line was built specifically for the Verado design, and it includes many in-line assembly validation testing stations. The engines are both hot and cold tested during manufacture.

These new models are designated as 2006 model year engines, and their start of production "will be scheduled accordingly." This probably means the engines will not be available until late summer 2005.

Mercury president Patrick Mackey described them like this:

posted 02-19-2005 12:42 PM ET (US)            

Compare with:

posted 02-20-2005 04:14 AM ET (US)            

Erik

posted 02-20-2005 10:29 PM ET (US)            

The parking meter would only allow 4 hours until we had to go back and add money. Our plan was look in the convention center area and then have lunch at one of the local establishments. After last year I had to make a plan to look at boats half a day and then go to the Marriot Marina to test ride some boats.

I have to say last year I did not know what to expect. For those that have not been to a boat show the size of the Miami International Boat Show it is hard to explain. The few pictures do not give it justice. I would suggest to make a couple of days if possible. And don't miss the local cafes and dinners for lunch, all are within a 10 minute walk of the convention center.

Last year we looked at every make of fishing boat we came across of. At 5 p.m. we only seen a small portion of the inside first floor convention center. We never made it to the second floor big game room or the outside boat exihbits. Not to mention the in water show.

At almost every boat or motor exihbit they have somebody that is very knowledgeable about the product. Not like your local boat show where the salesman just stepped off a used car lot.

Our plan was to look at Boston Whaler, Everglades, Mckee Craft, Mercury. I also happened upon a Ray Hunt & Associates designed boat called Southport that we took a look at.

Everglades won the innovation award with the new 290 Pilot. The story we got was they have been working on that design for three years. There was a non-compete agreement with Edgewater boats that stopped them from putting out an offshore model until now. I have to give that Dougherty family some credit on that 29, There is not a single section of the 29 that has not been well thought out.

We also stopped breifly at the Donzi booth. I think it had a little to do with the two young ladies at the front of the exhibit. We had a talk with one salesman who claimed they had sold six boats the previous two days. Five of the six boats they sold were powered by Verados. The other one was powered by 250 XS OptiMax. All looked to be triple motors. He said the XS motors were slightly faster. There were also a couple of Great Lakes' guys asking if the 290 Everglades could be purchased with Mercs. After breifly stopping at the Ray Hunt team designed Southport we headed towards the McKee Craft. I have looked long and hard at the 24 McKee Craft and wanted my buddy's neutral opinon between it and the 240 Outrage.

posted 02-22-2005 12:25 PM ET (US)            

As for Ed's parking meter experience, I would suggest the high-school on the north side of the convention center for your next visit. $15 for all-day parking, and the school is a worthy cause. The High-school has been offering parking as long as I can remember, and they have reasonable priced burgers and dogs for lunch.

posted 02-22-2005 02:34 PM ET (US)            

Bombardier was pretty eager to take people on test rides. Mercury, not so much. I rode on the same Ranger flats boat with the deuce and a quarter. My impressions are that the 225 E-TEC was a nice motor, ran well, no smoke etc. The problem with the E-TEC is that the technology isn't in your face like it is with the Merc. There's no digital throttle and shift, no high tech smart gauges, no power steering. You can't see the high tech pistons, the lack of valve train and belts, and the lack of maintenance. The E-TEC motors are just highly refined two-stroke outboards and so they don't seem as nice as the slick looking Verado's. That's actually fine with me though because if I was going to re-power I'd rather have a 225 E-TEC over a Verado. I like the white paint (Cooler in Florida) and I like the simplicity of the E-TEC. I also dig the optional stars and stripes graphics. Now if only Bombardier would come out with a 175 E-TEC that weighed 425 pounds I'd really be interested. For now my well maintained gas guzzling EFI Merc will have to do.

I thought the 205 Eastport was much nicer in person than it looks in the pictures I have seen. Seems like the perfect family cruiser that won't break the bank.

Whaler was pushing the Navman electronics. They were installed on just about every boat. The Navman equipment is nice but I prefer Furuno.

The cup holders integrated into the mooring line hawsepipe is pretty cool. (Pic 80-10) You can sit your beer down easily when a fish strikes.

The 320 Outrage cuddy--Not for me, even if I had the dollars. Actually, anything bigger than the 235 Conquest and I'll probably start looking elsewhere.

Other than the fireboat over at the Sealine marina, there were no commercial Whalers to be seen. Like everyone else here, I'd like Whaler to offer a new 18 and 22 Outrage from the old days with teak and such. Probably never gonna happen.

Did anyone see those jet drive pods that you can mount on the back of your boat? They have the motor and jet inside and are self-contained. Someone is thinking outside of the box.

The hottest chicks were at Fountain display. Black bikinis, black shades, acting like robots. It was surreal.

Grady White sure was proud of their J.D. Power awards. The awards were front and center for everyone to see.

My favorite boat of the whole show was probably the 32 Mirage with the single Volvo D6. Talk about a Bahamas/Middle Grounds machine.

If anyone is considering going to this event, it's really a three or four day affair. There is so much to see if you attend all three venues. The Convention center alone could be two days.

If anyone is flush with cash and can't decide what to do with all their money, then the Miami International Boat Show will take care of that.

posted 02-23-2005 12:13 AM ET (US)            

One other point, Bombardier gave me a nice T-shirt with their 2>4 propaganda on it. Give me LHG's address and I'll mail it to him.

And another point. I thought it was a little strange that the fire boat was powered by 225 YamaMercs. Where's the leadership over at CGP?

posted 02-24-2005 01:55 PM ET (US)         

As for those Mercaha 225's, I notice them still showing up on Whalers, etc also. I had read that Mercury purchased 4000 of them from Yamaha, and I am suspecting that they still have some left and want to get rid of them in lieu of Verados. Supposedly, they are actually quieter running than the Yamaha version, and an overall excellent piece of equipment.

posted 02-25-2005 08:10 PM ET (US)            

:-)

Yes, I am afraid it is a little disappointing that the Miami show has come and gone and all that Evinrude/Johnson/Bombardier had to show was a prototype 115-HP engine. It would have been really impressive to see more E-TEC engines in the works. I guess we will have to wait.

While the big V-6 engine is an important part of the engine market, and selling them brings a lot of prestige, the 90-HP range probably represents a much larger unit volume. I think that hanging out in Florida's Atlantic GOLD COAST region--where cost is never a consideration in boating and multi-million dollar yachts are so plentiful that people hardly notice them--one can get their sensibilities dulled. For every guy that buys a pair of 250-HP V-6 motors there are probably 50 guys who buy a fishing motor in the 40-90 HP range. Bombardier has product for that market, so they should be in good shape. The light weight of their engines is especially significant for these smaller horsepower models. The guy who can tolerate a 525-lb 90-HP motor is the exception, not the rule, and the E-TEC 90 will be hard to beat.

But all that said, it would have been grand to see row after row of 150-HP E-TEC motors at the show.

The 150-HP E-TEC is still something to speculate over. I am thinking it will probably be a smaller V-6 (around 2.5-liter displacement with a 60-degree block), and I hope that the weight comes in on the light side, maybe 400-420-lbs. That would put them 100-lbs less than the typical four-stroke or Verado.

Send those under-the-hood pictures. I love to see what makes things tick.

posted 02-25-2005 08:20 PM ET (US)            

Was Yamaha there? Did they have any product on the floor?

It sounds like about all Yamaha had to introduce was copies of the U. S. International Trade Commission decision on tariffs!

Did our Kennesaw, Georgia boys from Nippon have any new product to show?

posted 02-25-2005 10:42 PM ET (US)         

Jim, I would assume that the 115 Etec will be on the same V-4 block as the 115 Ficht, and that the 150 E-tec will be on the same V-6 block as the Ficht. Then it will be the same weight as the 135-175 Optimax engines. And it's not that Evinrude doens't have anything to sell in that price range.
The Fichts in these HP ranges seem like very good engines in their own right.

Incidentally, I have been looking at some figures on the little discussed Mercury 175 Optimax. That is one hot, small, DFI engine, very close to a 200 carb, and built on Mercury's smaller 2.5 liter block. People should consider this in their repowerings, at only 435#.

As for Yamaha, I think they're hiding under the problems from the 250 and 300 HPDI's, which were meant to be their Verado competition until they can get a bigger 4-stroke out.
Sounds like they rushed that 300 to market without adequate testing, because of the Verado introduction, and didn't learn their own waiting lesson, watching OMC self destruct with the early DFI's. And, as Paul has said, they really have been caught with nothing hot in technology like Supercharging, Smart Craft, Verado pedestal mount/steering, digital controls and Navman sonar/GPS integration with Smartcraft info. This stuff is now catching on, but they will catch up, one way or the other. But nevertheless, I'm sure they're pushing the JD POwers thing, since they've spent so much money on that form of advertizing. Unless it backfired on them? JD Powers can hardly tout the Customer Satisfaction with the 300 nightmare out there. The internet talk can be really destructive, and that advertized DFI 300HP can't outperform the 275 HP Verado, so it looks like they're selling something that can't measure up to the advertized HP rating. I'm sure Mercury has their fingers crossed on the Verado too, but so far, so good. New 4-stroke designs really do seem more reliable, any brand.

posted 02-26-2005 12:53 PM ET (US)            

See:
http://www.mercuryverado.com/L4/

posted 02-26-2005 05:14 PM ET (US)            

LHG is right about the 175 opti. From a repower standpoint that might be the best deal going for my 20 Outrage. The 175 is light and powerful. It's funny, somebody makes an engine to fit just about every application, nobody makes a series of engines that cover all applications. Everyone has their claim to fame product.

Another thought, Yamaha would be wise to team up with Furuno or possibly Simrad in order to compete against the Merc/Navman combo. Maybe outboards will become NMEA compliant and integrate with many brands of electronics. The future will surely hold some surprises.

posted 03-29-2005 04:33 AM ET (US)            

I love it in the official site (boston) is not possible to see pics aboutthis boat.

I want (hope-wife) to buy, Please a I need pics my email is rdieni@mcc.it

posted 04-07-2005 12:36 PM ET (US)            

By the way, I ordered a new 235 Conquest about two months ago. It's scheduled to begin building 4/21 with delivery to my dealer in NH the first week of May. I plan to add the spinner knob right after I try to come to peace with that 250 Verado that will be hanging on the transom.

Just an ex-Evinrude fan.