[ocuyler]

I demo'ed the 225 Honda on an '89 Grady 24 offshore walk. Nice boat. The motor was a 2002 with 130 hours. It started instantly and we cast of after only 1 minute of warm up. The binacle control was smooth and the motor never hesitated.
It was VERY quite at idle.

The hole shot was more gradual than the punch I'm used to with the 2 stroke, but it was fine. The sweet spot was probably 22 MPH at 3500 RPM. A normal conversation was posible, which I thought was cool. A fast cruise was around 28 MPH at 4750. Still quiet. WOT was 35 MPH at 5800. Still quiet. I thought the WOT was a little slow, but the vessel probably weights 1000 pounds more than my 23 with 1/2 fuel, etc. Coming off plane to a stop, you really could not hear the motor and instinct would tell you that it had stalled.

Maybe it was the boat (which I loved), but I was a little disappointed by the apperant lack of "kick" that even the old 200 Yamaha still has. However, there's not doubt that this motor was a serious machine and you could not make a mistake buying it as long as you knew what to expect.

It weighs just over 600 lbs and looked HUGE. The Ficht weighs 530 and the current 89 Yamaha weights only 460 pounds.

It was incredably luck that the NY, NJ, PA Honda Marine rep drove up just as we finished the trial. I spent 20 min. with him and asked every question I could think of. The most interesting thing he said was that they don't have a problem with the motor being run at WOT for hours on end due to the rev limiter and the engineering that has gone into it. I think that tells me that i could get a fast cruise comperable to a Ficht.

The other interesting thing I found out about the Ficht is that only 10% of the oil used is actually consumed. The oil is pumped into the motor and returned to the the tank except the 10% that is directed to lube the piston/cylinder walls. That's pretty cool.

I'm going to investigate the Yamaha 250 3.3L HPDI (540 lbs) before making a decision. Any comments on this motor?

John R - That old 200 would sit nicely on a bracket on the new 20' Seafari and lose the 4 cyl I/O.

Finster - I was only kidding. You're a great guy (as my Dad used to say), when you're asleep. If the Honda is not thought of well down there, what's the favorite?

I'm still leaning toward the Ficht.