On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 08:05:35 -0400, "Rick Kulesh"
wrote:

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.

No problem - if you are content with a single, by all means, go with a
single.

I've prefer twins on boats larger than 26 feet - that's just a
personal perference. I'm like Gene - I'm big on redundancy so I can
get myself out of trouble before I have to call for help. I've got
double everything on my Ranger CC except for the engine - I have an
ETEC 200 HO - and it ain't gonna completely fail unless I run out of
gas. I have enough battery power for the trolling motor to keep me
headed in the right direction or into the sea state. I will be adding
a Johnson 25 four stroke as a trolling engine this winter.

Side Bar: I will be rebadging it as an Evinrude just so it will match
my ETEC. :)

I still think you will get better overall performance out of a pair of
150s than a single 250, but that's not my decision.

With respect to I/Os - not on a CC.

No way. :)