outboard powered 40 footer?

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wellf100

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Having run an outboard powered boat for a few years and loving all the advantages an outboard can bring over an inboard, it got me wandering a few months ago about whether an outboard powered 40 foot hard top sports cruiser style boat (i don't mean US sport fisher style) would be popular or practical in practise. Given the increasing power of outboards it seems even more feasible then ever.

Then in this months mag I noticed the bit about the Azimut Verve...low and behold an outboard powered 40 foot hardtop sports cruiser! (albeit with only one cabin)
http://www.azimutyachts.com/azimutverve40.html

Powered by triple Verado 350's it does 44 knts and obviously geared more towards weekend cruising in sunnier climates. Similarly the Axopar 37. Wouldn't modern sportscruiser style boats (Princess 39 etc) be possible with twin outboards? Replace the twin 300hp diesels and sterndrives with a pair of Evinrude G2 300's.

No more stern drives or expensive and heavy diesels to service every year or repair. In fact the G2's don't need any servicing at all for the first 5 years or 500 hours as far as i understand!!!....this really appeals to my laziness....I mean my preference for low hassle boating!

I would imagine the savings against the unit cost of diesels/sterndrive combos and the saving on servicing would go a fair way to covering the extra fuel costs.

The Azimut has got round some of the problem of losing bathing platform square footage by incorporating a neat fold down side to the cockpit for better access. So a bit of creative design could overcome some of the downsides.

Just don't ask where I'd put a tender!
 
wellf100 said:
Having run an outboard powered boat for a few years and loving all the advantages an outboard can bring over an inboard, it got me wandering a few months ago about whether an outboard powered 40 foot hard top sports cruiser style boat (i don't mean US sport fisher style) would be popular or practical in practise. Given the increasing power of outboards it seems even more feasible then ever.

Then in this months mag I noticed the bit about the Azimut Verve...low and behold an outboard powered 40 foot hardtop sports cruiser! (albeit with only one cabin)
http://www.azimutyachts.com/azimutverve40.html

Powered by triple Verado 350's it does 44 knts and obviously geared more towards weekend cruising in sunnier climates. Similarly the Axopar 37. Wouldn't modern sportscruiser style boats (Princess 39 etc) be possible with twin outboards? Replace the twin 300hp diesels and sterndrives with a pair of Evinrude G2 300's.

No more stern drives or expensive and heavy diesels to service every year or repair. In fact the G2's don't need any servicing at all for the first 5 years or 500 hours as far as i understand!!!....this really appeals to my laziness....I mean my preference for low hassle boating!

I would imagine the savings against the unit cost of diesels/sterndrive combos and the saving on servicing would go a fair way to covering the extra fuel costs.

The Azimut has got round some of the problem of losing bathing platform square footage by incorporating a neat fold down side to the cockpit for better access. So a bit of creative design could overcome some of the downsides.

Just don't ask where I'd put a tender!
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If i can dig out my old American mags there are lots in that class. There are even some with hidden outboards so you still have a tender place. I think the G2 is the most gorgeous of things, show what you can achieve if you design a motor that fulfills a need and not a preconception. I just hope it proves to be reliable in the long term so like you I would only buy them in pairs
 
I agree completely for sports boats under 40 feet. Yes, you'd use more fuel, but you benefit from big savings on capital cost over a diesel/sterndrive set-up and equally big savings on annual maintenance, especially with ETECs. If you have an engine failure just before your summer hols you can just fit a new engine and sell it again afterwards, and you potentially get more accommodation or storage because you no longer need an engine room.

The extra fuel cost may not even be as high as you'd think, because you can tilt the engine out of the water when you leave it, so the props are always shiny clean and operating at full efficiency throughout the season.

The only thing I don't like is the idea of sleeping on top of a 1,000 litres of highly flammable fuel

This guy was obviously convinced of the benefits when it came to re-engining his boat :D

IMG_1370_zpsc9pg0hjq.jpg
 
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There certainly seems to be a bit of a shift happening "back" to outboards and petrol power.. I have noticed quite a few new boats coming out with outboards or having the option for outboards..

We switched from an inboard (Sports Cruiser) to outboard (Merry Fisher) boat last year and I am certainly happy with the outboard setup..
 
Nick_H said:
I agree completely for sports boats under 40 feet. Yes, you'd use more fuel, but you benefit from big savings on capital cost over a diesel/sterndrive set-up and equally big savings on annual maintenance, especially with ETECs. If you have an engine failure just before your summer hols you can just fit a new engine and sell it again afterwards, and you potentially get more accommodation or storage because you no longer need an engine room.

The extra fuel cost may not even be as high as you'd think, because you can tilt the engine out of the water when you leave it, so the props are always shiny clean and operating at full efficiency throughout the season.

The only thing I don't like is the idea of sleeping on top of a 1,000 litres of highly flammable fuel

This guy was obviously convinced of the benefits when it came to re-engining his boat :D

IMG_1370_zpsc9pg0hjq.jpg
Click to expand...

Ha! love it. Certainly some £'s worth hanging off the back of that!
 
thinking about low hassle/cost aspect further, with G2's and Coppercoat you wouldn't need to even take the boat out of the water for 5 years! (Perhaps just a quick jet wash once in while). That sounds very appealing to me!
 
wipe_out said:
There certainly seems to be a bit of a shift happening "back" to outboards and petrol power.. I have noticed quite a few new boats coming out with outboards or having the option for outboards..

We switched from an inboard (Sports Cruiser) to outboard (Merry Fisher) boat last year and I am certainly happy with the outboard setup..
Click to expand...

yep, there's so many OB powered hard top and open boats from the European builders available now, but nothing above 30ft as far as i know. There's even plenty with 2 cabins but it all seems a bit of a squeeze at that length when I've looked at them.

I can only assume that the French builders in particular may not want to encroach on the territory of their bigger 35ft+ diesel inboard powered ranges. But maybe I'm missing something.
 
Spi D said:
Another aspect is insurance. Ourboards tend to cost more to insure so do check when making the business case.
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I saw loads on a recent visit to Florida. Some with 3, some with 4 outboards, even some with 6.. The main issue for me would be fuel availability, rather then the cost of the fuel After running boats with a 5.7 litre petrol inboard for 12 or so years, carrying multiple 20 litre cans of petrol was getting tedious and rather hard work
 
It's a 12 tonne boat! Rather hope that's a misprint. And somewhat broad in the ass, too. OTOH, those motors are really good fuel burners so getting about (as 44kt Vmax suggests) will be straightforward and the absence of sterndrives has to be good! Just keep burning that fuel, because pootling with one of those just aint on!
 
GrahamHR said:
I saw loads on a recent visit to Florida. Some with 3, some with 4 outboards, even some with 6.. The main issue for me would be fuel availability, rather then the cost of the fuel After running boats with a 5.7 litre petrol inboard for 12 or so years, carrying multiple 20 litre cans of petrol was getting tedious and rather hard work
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You never know.. With Diesel seemingly becoming the big bad enemy for pollution in cities we might see petrol rising a favour and becoming available in more marinas.. Of course that is a whole other discussion for a whole other thread.. :)
 
Flavio said:
Not a 40 footer but the integration of the outboard engines looks nice.

http://pursuitboats.com/SC365i.php
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interesting. can see the advantages of enclosing the outboards but it looks like it takes up a lot of cockpit space. You do gain a bathing platform but it's tiny! I think i'd prefer to have the outboards hanging off the back in the normal way and have a bigger cockpit and storage. 41kts with the big Yamaha's and about 1mpg at cruising speed (28kts) but these are over 100kg heavier each than G2 300's. I would imagine performance would be pretty similar but with better economy.

Something like a Marex 375, Sealine sc35 or even the classic Windy Grand Mistral 37 with twin G2s would be a great match i would have thought. The gaping hole where the diesels were would easily house a generator and seakeeper!
 
I see also that a Volvo D4 300 dry weight of 559kg vs a G2 weight of 244kg. And that's before adding the weight of the sterndrive unit!
 
Interesting post:
. Can i scale the boat size down to (say ) 8 metres. My last boat ( currently boatless ) - a NImbus Nova 27s came with a Volvo D4 260 and DPH drive. I may get another boat ,but i have had enough of diesel stern drives, so it would be outboard powered.
What is the cost difference between a D4 260 / DPH drive and a 250 hp modern outboard.?
Most 8m sports cruisers come with inboard stern drives - i wonder why they do not fit lighter and equally powerful petrol outboards.
OK- petrol is not so widely available as diesel but that is not a problem on the South coast. Diesel gives a greater range but that is not important to everyone.
Maybe i have answered my questions. ! What do others think ?
 
Up to 30 ft I think the majority probably are outboard now. In sports cruiser form I really like the Finnmaster T7 and T8. I notice also that all the boats that the new Trafalgar Boat club have bought for boat club use are outboard powered (Finnmaster T7 being one of them).

I also like the Quicksilver 755 and 805 open boats. Fast, a cabin and sea toilet, loads of deck space both bow and cockpit. I think I saw the 755 open for around £50k with a 200hp mercury or 60k with 300hp.
 
beejay190 said:
Maybe i have answered my questions. ! What do others think ?
Click to expand...

We switched from an inboard V8 sports cruiser to an outboard powered Merry Fisher.. Getting petrol hasn't really been an issue in either boat but we didn't really try and cover any huge distances.. Littlehampton to Poole in the V8 sportcruiser and Poole to Yarmouth and back in the Merry Fisher is probably the most we have done in a day.. Could easily do a lot more but haven't had the need yet.. Maybe next season we will do a longer run somewhere..

At your 8m mark there are lots of outboard options.. Merry Fisher up to the 895, Antares up to the 8.80, Parker, quicksilver and lots of the Scandinavian options..
 
Surely ?

All that weight at the extreme end of the vessel can do nothing for the balance of the vessel and quite probably its sea keeping handling.
Good reason that engines are usually located as low and near CoG as possible. ?
You would need to haul the boat every single time for any serious servicing and am going to guess that service intervals on those babies are lot closer together than for any inboard diesel.
 
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Re: Surely ?

oldgit said:
... and am going to guess that service intervals on those babies are lot closer together than for any inboard diesel.
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On our Yamaha F175 the service intervals are 100h or each year whichever comes first.. I believe the Evinrude 2 strokes are 300h or 3 years.. Don't know what the intervals are on the inboard diesels so wouldn't be able to compare..
 
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