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.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

Pete, first off, forget about what the outboard people say about speed,
their fast, on nice days. On bad days, their not so fast, or you can
run them fast and beat the hell out of yourself (if your in your 20's
or early 30's, no big deal, 40 and over the pain last a lot longer).
Yes, most of the waves they take just fine, it's just those big ones
now and then that after several hours start to add up. Their's nothing
worse than having to hang on for dear life

My old 27 Phoenix with inboards was slower than the Grady White crowd
in shore, but outside, when the sea's kick up, like they do late in the
day, I just ran away from them. They would go out at 30 knots, if at
all, and come home at 16. I'd go out at 24 knots, and come home at 23
(straight inboards have a definite advantage in poor sea conditions).

That being said, get away from the idea of really high speed, and start
looking realistic crusing speeds and operating cost, the diesels have
the clear advantage. Yes, they cost more, but back off the throttle and
they burn very little fuel and they are reliable.

Don't get me wrong, I like outboards, on small boats used near shore.
But if you intend to run this boat a good distance offshore frequently
you will run into bad weather, their's just no way to avoid it, the
weather man is wrong all the time. The Albemarle should run much better
and faster in normal conditions because of the weight distribution and
the extra weight from the engines which should help keep the boat in
the water rather than leaping from wave to wave. The diesel engines
will out last the outboards, and the boat will hold it's value much
better. The GW with outboards is a nice boat, but it's a "me too" boat,
lots of them around, nothing special about it.

Just my two cents.

John