Sceptre 20 I/O Repower

[Terry England]

Originally Posted by Capt Terry

You may want to search for and consider my post "Estimating CG Shift with Heavy Engines". Terry England, with respect to I/O's versus outboards, want to chime on on your twin ETEC's on your 25' Bertram?

Yea, I don’t think I’d put a car engine with two 90- degree turns back in the 20’ SeaCraft. Probably OK in a 23 if you like “wrenchin” on your boat or paying someone to keep everything together. In my opinion, today’s stern drives are better than they ever were, but outboards are WAY better than they ever were.
Everybody builds great outboards in the 115 - 150 range and realistically that’s all you ever need on a 20, unless you want to race. I run a 90 on my 19’ stripped down SeaCraft Bowrider and it does fine. I think if you want to race, do it in flat water - sell the SeaCraft and get a Talon.

The 20’ Seacrafts “dance” over the water if you keep them light. The 25 Berts “plow” a 10 wide, 24 degree slot in the ocean where ever they go when you run them loaded with dive gear like I do. In my case two 15” diameter props have more surface disc “push” than a single 21” wheel surface area. The Berts are actually narrower at the transom than they are amidships where they are almost 10’ so if you hang too much weight in the aft portion they will squat with their ducks ass. I wanted twins for going way offshore but needed to keep the weight down so I took the sterndrives out, shed a 1500 lbs and used a couple of light V-4, 115 E-tecs.

The winds look under 10 mph this Saturday so were are taking the SeaCraft out about 28 miles to see if we can find a couple of groupers before the season closes. My fuel burn for the day should be about 16 or 18 gallons for the day.