Repower a 2001 22 Seafarer

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RambleOn

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I'm considering to repower my 2001 22' Seafarer. The boat currently has a 2001 200 HP HPDI engine w/ 700 Hrs on it. My options are a new Yamaha F200 or F250 four stroke. The F200 would be a one for one change but I'm wondering if anyone repowered a 22' Seafarer with a F250 and if so were there any concerns. Thanks
 
Where are you located? I have an older Seafarer that is rated for higher HP than the newer SV2 Hulls, and put a 300 on it with no issues. Motor barely has to work and if I need to get somewhere in a hurry regardless of load I can, which is helpful especially if entering or leaving inlets with bad tides/wind/wave action.

The 22's aren't that heavy of boats so 5-6' waves with sea swells can be a rollercoaster.

I originally had a carbureted 225 on it and switching to a fuel injected ETEC has been like night and day across the board (fuel economy, lower emissions than 4-strokes, quiet running, and most importantly PERFORMANCE).
 
Why repower if the current motor only has 700 hours on her? I'd think a properly maintained HPDI motor would last at least 2k hours without much of an issue at all. Per the brochure located on the Grady White website, attached below, your hull is rated up to 250 hp. I've got a 2004 Grady White 228 Seafarer with a 2004 Yamaha F225 on her, and I honestly wouldn't go with anything less than a 225. My top speed with a relatively light load is right around 43 mph or so @ WOT. Cruising is at around 23 mph @ 3,800 rpm and burning around 8 gph of fuel, which I'm completely fine with. Anything less I imagine would get worse fuel economy, though a single 250 I think would be much more ideal for the hull. The boat itself, especially if you load it down considerably with fishing gear, coolers, food, water, full fuel tanks and so forth can get relatively heavy. Of which I again wouldn't go anything less than a 225, and think that the ideal hp for the boat would be 250. Seems like your hull weight is slightly different from mine, yours per the brochure says 3,350 lbs and mine says 3,510 lbs. Not sure if they changed it up in the early 2000's to add buoyancy for the extra weight of four stroke motors, but that's what the brochure says at least. In regard to repowering the boat, I'd also consider going with Suzuki and/or Mercury. Both of which I imagine are going to be considerably less money than the Yamaha, as well as Mercury is going to be lighter and they're also offering a 7 year warranty right now on all of their outboards.

Weights for the outboards would be around 475 lbs for your current HPDI, 525 lbs for the Yamaha F200 and 551 lbs for both the F225/F250. The Mercury FourStroke series 200/225 is at 475 lbs and the 250 is at 527 lbs. The Suzuki 200 is 529 lbs, and then either 606 lbs for the mechanical 225/250, or 639 lbs for the digital/fly by wire 250. Comparatively, at least for me in my particular situation, the F225 on the back of my boat weighs 583 lbs per Google. I've never had an issue with the weight, having her sit low or anything like that, nor does she really struggle to get up on a plane or anything else. That being said and as mentioned above, I wouldn't go any less in terms of horsepower, and honestly if I were to repower today, it would likely be the Suzuki DF250AP. She does weigh about 50 lbs more than my current setup, which I don't think would make for really any issues at all, but comes with a standard 5 year warranty, would likely be the cheapest out of all the other options, comes with the digital/fly by wire throttles, etc. And if I were to repower, it would definitely be with the digital/fly by wire controls as opposed to the mechanical ones. As much as I like Yamaha, especially the looks of them, their cheapest F225/F250 is just under $30k, and that's for mechanical controls. Their DEC/digital F250 is over $30k, some of them are even $35k-$40k per their MSRP sheet. Comparatively, you can find the Suzuki DF250AP for around $20k, and sometimes even less than that. To me, that extra $10k+ will buy you a considerable amount of extra fuel, or whatever else you want to spend on the boat instead.


 
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RambleOn said:
I'm considering to repower my 2001 22' Seafarer. The boat currently has a 2001 200 HP HPDI engine w/ 700 Hrs on it. My options are a new Yamaha F200 or F250 four stroke. The F200 would be a one for one change but I'm wondering if anyone repowered a 22' Seafarer with a F250 and if so were there any concerns. Thanks
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I had a soft top 228g with a 2002 200hp V6 4T, it was just enough but could use more power, don’t get a 4cyl 200 it will be underpowered, go with the 250 you will love it.
 
Mustang65fbk said:
Why repower if the current motor only has 700 hours on her? I'd think a properly maintained HPDI motor would last at least 2k hours without much of an issue at all. Per the brochure located on the Grady White website, attached below, your hull is rated up to 250 hp. I've got a 2004 Grady White 228 Seafarer with a 2004 Yamaha F225 on her, and I honestly wouldn't go with anything less than a 225. My top speed with a relatively light load is right around 43 mph or so @ WOT. Cruising is at around 23 mph @ 3,800 rpm and burning around 8 gph of fuel, which I'm completely fine with. Anything less I imagine would get worse fuel economy, though a single 250 I think would be much more ideal for the hull. The boat itself, especially if you load it down considerably with fishing gear, coolers, food, water, full fuel tanks and so forth can get relatively heavy. Of which I again wouldn't go anything less than a 225, and think that the ideal hp for the boat would be 250. Seems like your hull weight is slightly different from mine, yours per the brochure says 3,350 lbs and mine says 3,510 lbs. Not sure if they changed it up in the early 2000's to add buoyancy for the extra weight of four stroke motors, but that's what the brochure says at least. In regard to repowering the boat, I'd also consider going with Suzuki and/or Mercury. Both of which I imagine are going to be considerably less money than the Yamaha, as well as Mercury is going to be lighter and they're also offering a 7 year warranty right now on all of their outboards.

Weights for the outboards would be around 475 lbs for your current HPDI, 525 lbs for the Yamaha F200 and 551 lbs for both the F225/F250. The Mercury FourStroke series 200/225 is at 475 lbs and the 250 is at 527 lbs. The Suzuki 200 is 529 lbs, and then either 606 lbs for the mechanical 225/250, or 639 lbs for the digital/fly by wire 250. Comparatively, at least for me in my particular situation, the F225 on the back of my boat weighs 583 lbs per Google. I've never had an issue with the weight, having her sit low or anything like that, nor does she really struggle to get up on a plane or anything else. That being said and as mentioned above, I wouldn't go any less in terms of horsepower, and honestly if I were to repower today, it would likely be the Suzuki DF250AP. She does weigh about 50 lbs more than my current setup, which I don't think would make for really any issues at all, but comes with a standard 5 year warranty, would likely be the cheapest out of all the other options, comes with the digital/fly by wire throttles, etc. And if I were to repower, it would definitely be with the digital/fly by wire controls as opposed to the mechanical ones. As much as I like Yamaha, especially the looks of them, their cheapest F225/F250 is just under $30k, and that's for mechanical controls. Their DEC/digital F250 is over $30k, some of them are even $35k-$40k per their MSRP sheet. Comparatively, you can find the Suzuki DF250AP for around $20k, and sometimes even less than that. To me, that extra $10k+ will buy you a considerable amount of extra fuel, or whatever else you want to spend on the boat instead.


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Mustang65 - thank you...you're an encyclopedia of information! Very helpful. Why repower if my s stroke only has 700 hrs...great question...one I struggle with. But the engine is 25 yrs old and I'm told parts are getting hard to come by and more expensive. But it does run like a raped ape. Another factor is the noise...it's loader than a 4 stroke for sure. I have settled on a 250 Hp based on the feedback. I'm also looking into the Suzuki also, but they are a bit heavier.
 
RambleOn said:
Mustang65 - thank you...you're an encyclopedia of information! Very helpful. Why repower if my s stroke only has 700 hrs...great question...one I struggle with. But the engine is 25 yrs old and I'm told parts are getting hard to come by and more expensive. But it does run like a raped ape. Another factor is the noise...it's loader than a 4 stroke for sure. I have settled on a 250 Hp based on the feedback. I'm also looking into the Suzuki also, but they are a bit heavier.
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I get it... the 4 stroke motors are quite nice and considerably less noisy/smoky than the older 2 stroke motors. About 15 years ago, my uncle bought a mid 1990's Bayliner Trophy with twin 2 stroke Mercury 175's on it, of which they were quite noisy and smoked considerably. He sold that boat and a few years later in 2017 I bought my first boat, a 21' Arima with a single Honda 130 hp four stroke, of which the difference was night and day. The motor was quiet, ran smooth, didn't smell and I remember the first sea trial run that I did in the boat, I tried turning the key and starting the motor while it was already on because it was so quiet when it was running in neutral. I ended up selling that Arima and bought my current boat, which is the 2004 Grady White that I mentioned before, and told myself before doing so that I would never own a boat with a 2 stroke motor on her, unless it was a steal of a deal or too good to pass up on. I remember when I was looking for my boat, that I saw a few that were in the early 2000's with 2 stroke motors on them, of which I ended up passing on them because of the price as well as them having older motors. And I'm honestly glad that I did.

Anyway, you could always run the boat like it is until the motor needs to be replaced or rebuilt, or you could always see how much you could sell the motor for now, and then put that money towards a repower. I imagine you'd likely be able to sell the motor for considerably more money now than you would a few years from now, especially if it stopped running, or needed to be rebuilt, etc. Sounds like you're worried about the additional weight, of which the Mercury options might be the best one for you. As mentioned above the 250 FourStroke series is 527 lbs, and their 250 Pro XS model is even slightly lighter than that at 511 lbs. Though I honestly don't imagine you'd likely feel the difference in the additional 16 lbs, especially when your current motor is 475 lbs, or only 50 lbs less than the Mercury 250 FourStroke series. As mentioned above, the typical early to mid 2000's F225, like the 2004 that I have on my boat, is 583 lbs. Which she works great for my setup, doesn't feel too stern heavy, doesn't sit especially low or anything else. I imagine if I did go with the Suzuki DF250AP at 639 lbs, or something similar, that the extra 60 lbs or so likely wouldn't be felt or noticed that much. Especially since weight can be distributed a bit with moving batteries around and so forth, especially if moving them up to the middle/bow portion of the boat. Good luck with whatever it is that you decide on doing.
 
Mustang65
Caught this post at the right time I also have a 200 hpdi on my 2000 226 My biggest concern is the added weight.
Like to move up tp 225hp if possible but since i leave her in the water over the summer worried that the scuppers would be under water
Currently the water level is just below the scuppers.

thx
 
dbogeyman said:
Mustang65
Caught this post at the right time I also have a 200 hpdi on my 2000 226 My biggest concern is the added weight.
Like to move up tp 225hp if possible but since i leave her in the water over the summer worried that the scuppers would be under water
Currently the water level is just below the scuppers.

thx
Click to expand...

I leave my boat on a mooring buoy in front of my beach cabin on Whidbey Island between from roughly late June until early October. I typically don't fill the boat up to much more than 1/2-2/3 of a tank, as I literally row out to the boat from my cabin, climb on, start her up and then start fishing as soon as I take her off the buoy. So, I do about 90% trolling for salmon, with the occasional jaunt a few miles away to check crab pots, or even just going for a cruise here and there. Long story short, I don't use a ton of fuel as I'm trolling most of the time and using less than 1-2 gph of fuel when doing so. With the boat having a 92 gallon fuel tank, I can essentially go fishing almost every weekend and still not use up 1/2-2/3 a tank of fuel during the summer months. That being said, if I do fuel up the boat to 3/4+ then the waterline can be at the bottom half or so of the scuppers. When I first bought the boat, if someone would stand in the stern to check their fishing gear, water would start to pool into the back.

Since then, I replace all three of the rubber scupper flappers every summer, of which they're less than $10 a piece and that makes it so that the water doesn't come pooling in, as well as it's also a bit of cheap insurance imo. Also, the cockpit level where you stand inside the boat is higher up than where the scuppers are on the outside of the boat. So, from what I've heard even if you had no scuppers on back of the boat, it's not like the boat would sink, unless you had the stern of the boat drop down considerably as well when doing so. If someone were to go stand back there, then yes as mentioned you'd have water start to pool in. But as soon as they walked back up to the helm, it would flow out of the boat. They're meant for draining water out of the boat, not letting water come in, think of it kind of like a snorkel. As long as your hoses going from the deck drains to the scuppers aren't leaking, the waterline coming midway up to your rubber scupper flappers shouldn't be any sort of issue at all. As mentioned before, the 200 HPDI has a dry weight of around 475 lbs, as does the 225 Mercury FourStroke. So, if you're looking to repower and keep it at the same weight, or as close as possible to it, that might be your best option.
 
I vote for a 250. When Grady last built the 228 it was rigged with a 300. The 4.2 Yamaha 250 is a stronger motor than the older 3.3 liter 250 abd weighs less. New motor is almost a new boat.
 
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