Rick,
You Missed a line Look below:

lid wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 07, Matt Colie wrote:
I push a 4800# centerboard sloop with the board halfway down
a 6.0k at just over half throttle at about 1/2g/hr with a Honda 9.9. WOT
gets me to 6.2 and empties the tank way faster. A friend bought the new
TH and you can tell the difference just as he cranks up, but his cruise
is at a higher engine speed and his fuel rate is not as good as mine and
on flat water I can be at cruise at the same time.

On Mon, 12 Mar 07, PhantMan wrote:
Just looking at your friend's Honda HT gearcase, can you tell a
difference between it and yours? I'm wondering if the distance between
the prop shaft and the cavitation plate is greater on his HT.... or if
Honda just sticks a larger diameter prop and lower ratio gears on the
same case.

ooookie doke. Getting no response, I finally broke down and called the
dealer to ask my question. He tells me, not only are the lower units
the same, but Honda doesn't even put lower ratio gears it's high
thrust model. The only difference is the prop diameter (9.25" vs 10")
and the decal on the cowling. Who'd a thunk it.

Rick
Standard BF model 9.25*8
High Thrust Model 10*6.5

The older TH Hondas had a different gear ratio, I guess they have
decided it wasn't worth their while.

Matt Colie wrote:
Rick,
You Missed a line Look below:

You mean:
"Yamaha apparently does this with gears, Honda does it with
a larger D and smaller pitch on the prop with the same gears
(this year was different two years ago)" ?

Yep, I read it but I guess it just didn't register somehow. Maybe I
still had the old specs in my head... including the XXlong shafts.

The older TH Hondas had a different gear ratio, I guess they have
decided it wasn't worth their while.

Apparently. Who knows what goes into a marketing decision like that.

Rick