[nestorpr]

Hi Rickdoc,

Yep, Im satisfied with it for now, it needs some work since it's a bit hard to start after a couple of weeks downtime but it goes well after the first warm-up. Although, if I had the money, I would put the RotaryPowerMarine 240 Si engine in her. I did some investigating and found some good stuff about this engine, 240 hp, supercharged, twin rotor, all electronic ignition and fuel injection, The whole package weighs about 340 lbs and you could even cut the engine box down a bit because it'a a smaller package than the Mercruiser! I also found out that its gas mileage is better than a V8 pumping out the same horsepower so, let's recap: Powerful, Lightweight, Reliable, Fuel efficient, Mercruiser Barvo 3 drive, is this the way to go?, maybe, if I had $16,000! Still, any ol' outboard costs about that much nowadays and I can sit on the I/O engine box while fishing, something you can't do with an outboard. I know, I'm biased, but I've owned both types and stil prefer the I/O, we've lost too many big marlin behind the outboard powerheads when the marlin suddenly swerve behind the boat when trying to board them, lost 2 tournaments that way, one was a definite 300 and the last one was over 500lbs, on 50lb line they would have been shoe-ins.

Anyway, yes, I like the Merc and it still has 2 more rebuilds on it so it will probably be around a while. I suggest you keep it in tune yearly, new plugs, points, condenser, maybe even cables and dist, cap/rotor yearly (I do). Make sure the 3 fuel filters are always clean and replace them when you see your top end being affected. On this engine, low speed problems are usually electrical and high speed ones are fuel/air related. I just replaced all the electrical elements on mine, plugs, cables, dist. cap, rotor, condenser, points, and coil. No guesswork here! Next is a carb. rebuild and a prop repitch, my top end is still low. It should rev at about 4500 to 4800 and I'm only getting 4100, probably wrong pitch propeller. At this rpm I'm only seeing about 33 mph, should be more. BTW, also found out there's an electronic ignition conversion kit for this engine IF you still have the original distributor, which I don't. Too bad for me!

I just took her out today for a fishability test by myself and am happy to report that, with the Bimini down, I was able to fight a fish while controlling the boat simulateneously, usually you need a CC boat for that but this baby does it very well indeed. Caught 1 barracuda, 3 dolphin, and one bonito using 2 rods and still had no problems fishing, steering, or boarding the fish, and I still have a cabin when I feel the need to comfortably overnight. It's the best of both worlds my friend, enjoy your Seafari and I hope you put a thousand miles on it before you think of trading up to a Seafari 25!