I understand what you are saying, but in my experience, and I've had both
twins and singles, is that the only time I've needed to have twins is
because I HAD twins.

I maintain myself. With twins, I was always chasing after one engine, and I
felt my time too split to properly maintain them.

I can keep one engine in great shape, or twins in good shape. With a
properly maintained single, I've never had problems. And I frequently go
offshore.

As a caveat, I favor sterndrives, but am assuming that outboards are about
equal in reliability. My current I/O is a 5.7L Volvo-Penta GSi/DuoProp.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 13:46:38 -0400, "Rick Kulesh"
wrote:

just get the big single and get a contract with
BoatUS/SeaTow/(insert water-assistance company of choice in your area).

Oh, that's just brilliant.

Redunancy is important in boats like this and to save a few bucks by
not using twins is silly. The 250 will push that thing around fine,
but twins are important if he's planning on heading out a few miles
offshore.

Towing insurance companies are important, I agree, but not having the
power to get out of trouble on your own is also importnat.