Mercury Outboards

[throwback]

First time Post.

Carl think about a merc optimax. I run a pair of them on a 27 footer and they have been flawless. I charter and run them hard . Some of the early ones took a bad rap but was mostly do to not using the correct oil. They require a optimax oil diet. The oil is abit expensive about 14/16 bucka a gallon which I buy bulk from a merc dealer.

I also have a 76 v20 which I have had for over 15 year. Had a stright six -290 cu in it- the IO just gave up the ghost and am in the process of converting to outboard. The hull is gutted engines drive wiring ect removed. I have a 200 opti wgich is going to get hung. The engine is a storm damaged salvage engine paid $4000 it runs fine and has 307 hours on it.

I have had the boat 30/40 miles offshore lots of times. Installed 40 gallon aux fuel. Boat used about 8 gallons an hour at around 14 kts. Expect the opti to do much better. Going to move fuel aft and probably can get about 80 gallons on board