25' Sailfish power options

G

GPappy

Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2011
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Just got my new project boat home and was hoping that someone here might have some experience with different power options.

My current boat has twin 170hp Mercruiser 470s but I really wanted outboards to get rid of the dog house for fishing purposes. The project boat also had a hardtop (damaged) and better configuration (1988 vs 1978) boat.

So with that as background, the new boat has twin 250HP Yamaha Saltwater series motors on it and that just seems like overkill considering what my old boat had. The motors spent some time underwater so will have to be torn down and overhauled but before I do that I was wondering what others thought a single 300Hp 4 stroke or twin 200HP 2 strokes would do with this hull. The current motors weigh over 1000 lbs so a large 4 stroke would save over 300 lbs and the smaller twins would save around 200 lbs. I have a kicker with autopilot on my old boat that I would like to transfer to this one before I sell it but not sure about all that weight with the 250s.

There is a little fiberglass work on the top of the boat that I will have to do also. Looking for a good book or web page that I can learn a little about fiberglass repair.

Thanks in advance for any help.

GP
 
My boat had the same power as your old boat. I repowered with a single 8.1 L Mercruiser Bravo 1. That motor is rated at 375 HP. and I am very happy with my performance and fuel economy. More HP and less weight than the 470s. You old boat has 340 HP with your twin 470s granted that is 1970s rated HP and I am not sure how HP is rated today. Is it measured in the at the crankshaft or propshaft? I am guessing that back in the day it was rated at crankshaft. In short I am not sure if HP ratings then and now are apples to apples. At any rate do you think the 300 single performance would it be equal to your 470s? Are you happy with the old boats performance? You should be ahead in the weight dept. so perhaps performance would be the same or better. Maybe someone at Grady can give you and idea of performance of the 300 on a similar weight boat.The twin 200 HPDIs sounds like a great power option. Would they be lighter than the present 250s? As to single vs. twins I went with the large single and after having it I am fine with one engine. I don't know what your boat uses are but I am fine doing everything I did with the old twins. Good luck with your search.
 
Thanks onoahimahi,

Looks like those are mostly all the later model 272 and 282 but I guess if twin 200's will handle the larger boats they should handle mine. Not sure what year they changed the hull and if that would make a difference.

Would love a pair of etecs like yours but they seldom come up used and I can't justify new motors for this boat. May just go ahead and rebuild the 250s but I would like to have less wait on the transom.

GP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.