On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:28:13 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:35:10 -0400, HK wrote:

Short-term fix, with eventual abandonment. I'm on my second four stroke
Yamaha, and "I bin konverted." I'd never buy a two stroke outboard now.
Mostly what I see down are are Yamaha and Suzuki four strokes, a much
lower number of Hondas, very very few Mercury Verados and so far, one
etec.

Here's a dissenting voice for what it's worth.

At the beginning of the year we bought a Honda 20 hp 4 stroke for our
RIB dinghy, replacing an aging Merc 15 hp 2 stroke. The Honda is a
solid motor and quite reliable but it is totally lacking in low end
torque. The Merc 15 always popped the RIB up on plane within a second
or two with two people aboard, sometimes with three. The Honda
struggles to get two people on plane and refuses with three. I've
ordered a new prop with less pitch and hopefully that will help the
situation but so far it has been disappointing.

I don't have any direct experience with four strokes, but I know guys
who have purchased 40/50 hp class four strokes with smaller
bass/fishing boats and that seems to be a common complaint.

Never hear that with two strokers. :)

One engine that the 18 foot class bass boat crowd is the 90 ETEC. That
seems to be a real winner along with the 40 with the charter crowd up
in Quebec.