who likes what and wyh
who likes what and wyh
take a feed & leave the rest to breed
Sterndrives were great for economy when all outboards were carby 2 strokes, but with 4 stroke and DI 2 strokes these days it's hard to put forward an argument for sterndrives. Definately require more ongoing maintenance than outboards and certainly don't have the reliability of outboards, they also take up room inside your boat. Manifolds and risers are an ongoing expense and ignoring these can cost you big dollars in the long run. I've owned 3 sterndrives over the years, will never own another. Love my Yammie 4 banger.
Sterndrives are now a lot more reliable than they used to be, with modern fuel injection systems they are as reliable as outboards. Yes they do require a bit more maintenance than an outboard but not excessivley so. I regularly get about 90- 100 miles out of my 140 litre tank so they are fairly economical as well. 1 aspect that is usually overlooked is the added stability they give a boat. Look around the waterways and you will see hundreds of boats with sterndrives that are up around 20yrs + in age and still running strongly. Its usually rust that kills a sterndrive, and not being able to source spares rather than the number of hours run. Yes the engine box does intrude into the cockpit area but it is a good place to lock yourself into when the conditions are rough, and in my opinion easier to fish around than an outboard. Being the weighty items they are allows a good naval architect to put a lot more vee in a hull than 1 with an outboard, and all that weight low makes it nice and stable.
I couldn't agree moreOriginally Posted by two up
The only real reliability concerns to plague a sterndrive is owners who don't service their engines. If they are regularly serviced just like an outboard needs to be they will provide trouble free service.
Even better when freshwater cooled as the only sacrificial parts become the exhaust elbows which in a moored vessel have a 5 yr lifespan and if the boat were trailered (ie: freshwater flushed after use) then the elbows will last a lot longer than 5 yrs.
Cheers
Adding too an in support of both Too Up and BM, traditionally theres also a lot more problems if you want to go to slightly larger boats and use them for cruising when using outboards.
Can be a major problem to accomodate things such as a tender when running O/bs, which is an essential item for getting ashore, particularly if you don't want to keep beaching your glass boat.
Having said that I did finish up designing and implementing an excellent extended davit system to get out past the O/b for just that purpose that worked quite well.
The next up comming project is to fit a recently designed submerging swim platform to "fatenhappy" our 23' shark cat. What a lot of wank some might say ... not so.
My wife has MS and so has limited movement in her lower limbs which only seems to be getting worse. The idea is quite simply for her to climb into our inflatable which can be brought around and mounted on the swim platform. Lower the whole thing up and down in the water as required so it can be fully submerged. This way she has a dry easy way of getting in and out of the main boat, which will also extend her boating pleasure for many more years to come.
The added freedom of movement afforded with the swim platform will also give me a great fishing platform when we aren't using it for any of its other many intended applications. I can't do any of that with O/bs hanging off the back !!
I suppose it all comes down to horse for courses so to speak and your application. Sometimes the O/b's are the ducks guts and other like mine its going to be the sterndrives. So once again the stern drive situation is a very handy asthetically pleasing option.... for us
Cheers
Greg
thanks for your thoughts guys.
i have a 6mtr glass boat with a old mercruiser in it and i love it. being my first big
boat and not having a outboard in the past i cant compare. it seams rare to here any comments on stern drives on ausfish........
i expect to here a couple of comments about skined knuckles and the ease of upgrading a outboard butt i just love the ride and handling of my old girl.
take a feed & leave the rest to breed
hi all
well i have the best of the lot with a shaftdrive.very low maintenance.weight low in the hull.no lump on transom.marlin board.and able to fight fish evan when circling under stern of vessel.
gary .mooloolaba.
Bobby B
I have had both in- and outboards and I don't wanna see another inboard! I've gone thru the whole seized inboard with replaced risers and manifolds etc. due to probably poor maintanance schedule by the previous owner however that sucked all the funds and fun out of boating for me. I actually considered giving up boating all together because of all the drama I had.
I'm back on a good new reliable Yammie again and I'm enjoying every trip again hassle free and saving money again (something I couldn't think about before).
Arvor has the ultimate solution, shaftdrive. Nice little diesel in a displacement cruiser. If you want a high powered sterndrive, don't consider one unless you can flush / store in freshwater sea pen. Good luck and glad you're happy with yours!
LIFE'S SHORT - FISH MORE!!!
Mark,
What was the age of the inboard and what is the age of your outboard?
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