On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:49:37 GMT, "Peter Aitken"
wrote:

We are shopping for a fishing boat and have narrowed it down to a Grady
White 28 foot walkaround with twin 225 outboards or an Albemarle 28 foot
walkaround with twin 200 diesels with jackshafts and stern drives. The clean
transom of the inboard is sure appealing, and the Albemarle people claim
that having the engine weight in the middle of the boat gives a much better
ride. But really, how much better? Is it a big difference or one of those
things that is real but subtle?

Also what about noise? It seems that having 2 turbocharged diesels right
under you would be a lot noisier than having a couple of 4 strokes hanging
off the transom.

Any other comments about this choice will be welcome. Thanks.

I had twin FICHTS (225) on my old Contender (31') and new E-TECs (twin
225) on the new Contender Fisharound (31'). For my money, the new two
stroke outboard technology beats four strokes hands down both in
terms of efficiency, weight and reliability. The "clean" transom
isn't really as clean as you think - there still stern drives hanging
off the stern.

I had looked at a Topaz in the same category which had twin diesels,
but I can't sell myself on diesel power for this size boat. My boat
will be just as quick and while I've been informed otherwise by people
on this group that I respect, I still think that outboards are more
efficient - in particular these new E-TECs.

There are those who will disagree, but for what it's worth outboards
are better.

Later,

Tom