TX H210SS wrote:
1. I assume the OB fun ship doesn't include water sports. No tow hook on that boat that I see. So you buy a tow harness, but where do you hook it....dive in and under water?
2. So you have to buy a tower or mount a floor stressing tow pole. Then every time you slow or turn you have a rope tangled or hanging on motor.
Tow/ski Pylon. Integrated into the design of the boat. Look at pics of the H180OB. I'm sure they put something similar on the new deck boats. My 2004 has one and it works great. Never had any issues towing with it. Also with towers being all the rage, I'm not sure this comes into play with boarding.
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3. I'm no engineer, but even though the OB is lighter ALL of the weight is hanging off the rear. From the one I've owned the ass drags on hard acceleration. These have been fishing rigs but not desireable in pleasure boats either. Fine for casual cruising but not good if you want any decent use in water sports. That's why most add motor jacks and tabs to their boats....to try and keep the ass end up.
False. 1000 lbs near the transom or 500 lbs just aft of the transom is still 500 lbs less on the rear of the boat. A properly designed boat should pop out of the water under hard acceleration. What I've experienced is that my boat with OB hops on plane with barely any bow rise. Compare that to many similar boats with I/O and my boat is far quicker to plane.
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4. Throwing the prop that far behind the boat kills the manueverabilty of the boat. Especially at low speed...takes wider turns. Granted, my experiance had been on shallow running semi V models, which will skid in the water anyway.
??? Not sure how that even makes sense. Put a prop/rudder at the middle of the boat and it would do essentially nothing to change course. Put it at the end and you have a decent lever to work with.
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The cost of a Merc 350 is around TWENTYFIVETHOUSANDAMERICANDOLLARS plus tax and they do break down like everything else.....
Again, this doesn't make sense. Price out a Mercruiser "big block" or similar with a Bravo drive. This would give you roughly equivalent performance. You need the whole package to compare apples to apples. Parts can be replaced on an outboard just like a I/O. If it breaks you don't have to replace the whole thing.
Also, Mercruiser is getting away from using GM motors. They have a new V6 and V8 the are not GM based. They make them. Parts costs, repair costs etc. are really not any cheaper on current fuel injected catalyzed modern I/Os.