Finally pulled the trigger on new power

[Cuttyhunker]

After 15 years and 1250 hours I retired my Etecs, they were running fine but the dealer couldn't get the cooling systems to work right, overheat at cruise.  Went for the Suzi's 150HP a side same as the Etecs but fly by wire controls.  Love em, the fly buy wire gives so much more control, especially cruising at low plane speeds, they don't bog and fall off plane in sloppy conditions.  Brought my 41 year old Blackfin to a new place, should have stepped up a few years back.     

[thorhammer]

Nice! My mechanic and Sea Tow run the same as engines as me: DF175's. Mechanic has the Sea Tow service contract and says he's seen them get 9,000 hours with all the services kept up. That's serious staying power.

[boon]

Nice! My mechanic and Sea Tow run the same as engines as me: DF175's. Mechanic has the Sea Tow service contract and says he's seen them get 9,000 hours with all the services kept up. That's serious staying power.

9000, just getting run in then

We're getting close to the 1000 mark on our Zuk, has been absolutely flawless the entire time.

[steelfish]

nice boat.

[Cor]

We had 2 Suzuki 90's on the boat I fished on, about 7 years old now and operate flawlessly.   I have confidence in those!

[oldmanjoe]

 Well going from 2 stroke to 4 , the fuel burn is a plus . How much has the weight change hanging off the stern .

[Cuttyhunker]

About 150 more for both, adding some ballast up front

[Crab Pot]

Very nice and rare boat!

Never seen a Blackfin in person but the reputation is awesome!

[Cuttyhunker]

The old ones were built like a tank all inboards at first. The single gassers were 11 laters of roving and mat the twins and diesels had 13. The new ones from Monterey of Florida are a totally different boat, different design and construction, they bought the trademark.  Seems to be a lot of new fins for sale after a few years, the originals stopped production about 2006.

[boon]

Nice to see a proper outboard well in the transom too. I see so many boats with an open or very low transom and big twins; even if you have a self-draining deck I prefer to keep most of the ocean on the outside of the boat. We occasionally take water over the back and that's with a full portofino transom.

[Cuttyhunker]

From David Pasco at YachtSurvey.com

"Open Transoms

More boats with no transoms have been appearing on the market with more frequency lately, and many of these are just accidents waiting to happen. A boat without a transom cannot reasonably be called seaworthy unless the internal compartments of the hull are made absolutely watertight. This is almost never the case because the builders never put absolutely watertight hatches in the decks.

They make a mistake by ignoring the probability that at some point in time the vessel will encounter circumstances where waves are crashing over the nonexistent transom, flooding the deck, and thereby endangering the vessel and its passengers. Builders of such boats don't have the foresight (which they should have) to consider what would happen if such a boat lost power while navigating a dangerous inlet, or breaks down while at sea. Under these circumstances, the lack of a transom becomes very dangerous. Even large sport fishermen with large, open cockpit scuppers or non-sealing transom doors have gotten into trouble under such conditions. If you are the owner of such a boat, you had better think carefully how you use it."

This site is a wealth of common sense info for prospective or even well experienced boat owners.