[cdavisdb]

What a boat!

I can add a little to the discussion on your power system. I owned a 24 Seabird with a volvo 570/290 duoprop for 14 years, wish I still had it. The system was new in 1991. The essential parts of the 290(those that get you home) were completely bullet proof. I never did anything to it other than annual maintenance, even though it got way too familiar with coral heads and sandbars. Weak points are the tilt release (a zillion little parts that are a little fragile and expensive to replace), the trim cylinders(don't fail often, but are a bitch in labor and parts to replace) and the trim indicator, which is just junk. The 570 was the same as your block(painted red), same manifolds, risers, intake manifold(I think). My carb was a 4bbl holly. I think the system generated a little more hp than yours.

One thing to be careful of. The engine sits very low in the hull, far below what volvo recommends. Make sure the both flappers on the drive are working well. Better, try to figure some way to install riser extensions. I'm going to 6 inch extensions in mine.

When you want to spend a little (er, maybe a lot) of money, consider getting a duoprop foot. It is just the thing for as big a boat at this one, phenomenal torque, which produces a super hole shot, astonishing low speed performance,and great fuel efficiency.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with those looking at big blocks for this hull, unless you really want to cruise near 40 knts. The 25 is a little tail heavy to start with, and a big block makes it worse. My 25, with a 300 hp volvo small block and an sx duoprop cruises at 30 mph at max efficiency(better than 2.5 smpg) and top ends at 40+. You could bump up the cruise to 35 mph with not too much reduction in gas mileage. I just got stainless props on it, which improved things, but haven't had time to get a full set of data with it loaded heavy.

One question. Did either of yours have a chunk of foam underneath the area in the center of the hull between the bunks? Mine does and it looks original, but its the only foam I can find in the boat. Any other 25 owners with the same thing?

Connor