Have boat manufacturers gone NUTS ?

[Pete Meisinger]

A recent boating magazine had an interesting article about a nostalgic ride in an old boat with a 50's outboard on the back. Anyone who grew up with these old oil burners knows well the sounds and smells associated with them. I just mention this to let you know I really do love outboards

Then I saw a video of a new "Cigarette" boat with SIX (count them SIX) 450 hp outboards on the back. Thats 2,700 hp! The reviewer was literally "GA GA" about the boat and the power. It was around 50 some feet long and really beautiful, although quite worthless in my eyes.

Granted, Cigarette and Donzi and the like have a reputation to maintain and foster. And they wouldn't build them if they couldn't sell them but come on, really! Close to a half a million dollars hanging on the back ? Probably in the triple digits of gallons per mile. Top speed over 70 mph.

I see that pontoon boats now can easily exceed 75 mph, the record being over 100 mph. One hundred and fifty foot boats going 50 mph?

So my original question. Have the manufacturers gone nuts or am I hopelessly out of date? Did I sniff too many fumes from the old 10 hp 1958 Evinrude?

pete

 

[O C Diver]

They're probably building what they think the market wants.

Ted

 

[PacificBlue]

Outboards have exploded the design scene over the last few years. It gives their buyers what the want - speed, for a relatively low price for the amount of hp.

These are mostly short excursion types or no long stays aboard, more emphasis on the use of dock side amenities.

The real kicker is that most of these guys are just replacing engines every 2 - 3 years, they never get completely overhauled just re-sold on the used engine market.

 

[kthoennes]

My dad lives in Florida and sends me pictures of those multi-outboard boats, motors lined up like picket fence posts across the transom. To each his own, but I don't get it. Some of them look so silly they make me laugh out loud.

 

[twistedtree]

Never underestimate how many little pee pees there are out there.

 

[RT Firefly]

 

[Coastal Cruiser]

I think a better question is "have the customers gone nuts?". The boat manufacturers are simply building what the market demands.

 

[boathealer]

A large group of MTI boats came through Stock Island Marina Village a few days ago. Quite a scene....

 

[boathealer]

I think a better question is "have the customers gone nuts?". The boat manufacturers are simply building what the market demands.

Good point. And yes, they have.....

 

[ragin cajun]

I would pay the fuel bill to be co-captain/throttle man for a couple of hours. Besides, going 70mph pulls all the wrinkles off your face....you'll look 30 years younger!

 

[Captain Max]

Sex Sells. You either get it or you don’t.

 

[twistedtree]

Sex Sells. You either get it or you don’t.

So let me ask the few women on this site...... Does seeing a guy with a boat like that make you think "oooh, he's the man for me"? Or does it make you think "wow, he must have a small pee pee"?


I'm just wondering who people owning these boats think they are impressing? It seems to me they are only impressing other people like them, and not the women they are hoping to attract. Actually just the opposite.

 

[psneeld]

Usually those boats have the women to go with them.

Doesn't mean either the boat or the women would be everyone's cup of tea...but those boats often mean a high rollin lifestyle to go with it even if the guy is bankrupt or in prison in 2 years.

Remember GH Bush had a Cigarette I believe.....so you dont have to be a goober either.

 

[Captain Max]

So let me ask the few women on this site...... Does seeing a guy with a boat like that make you think "oooh, he's the man for me"? Or does it make you think "wow, he must have a small pee pee"?


I'm just wondering who people owning these boats think they are impressing? It seems to me they are only impressing other people like them, and not the women they are hoping to attract. Actually just the opposite.

“The few women on this site”. You just answered your own question. With your logic, homeless bums must be total studs? Also don’t assume it’s women they’re impressing. If you visit Sunset Harbor Marina on Miami Beach, you will notce all the giant Italian yachts with “pretty boy” crews for the Pretty Boy guests, not a female to be seen.
In my profession I’ve met many beautiful women (the charter guests are all at least a solid eight on the scale) and I’ve noticed an amazing thing: beautiful intelligent successful women who literally can’t read a printed sign 10’ away can tell you the make and the exact cost of expensive watches on a mans wrist from hundreds of feet away. When I remark on that they say “I don’t know, it’s a gift I have”. My father used to say “anything to do with sex is very expensive”. So either you get it or you don’t.. Guys can leave their waterfront mansions here, run over to the Islands, play, and be back home the same evening to jump into their Lambo’s, Ferrari’s, Teslas are big now, (they have them all) and go out to a game. Most the large yachts tow 35’ -40’ tenders behind us for weeks in the Bahamas. We’re on our third (they keep breaking apart)one in three years, and each are over $700k.. Our boat is only 118’ which is considered “little”.

 

[mahal]

Different strokes for different folks. Some like trawlers/cruisers, others prefer sailboats and a few are into compensators.

 

[Woodland Hills]

Some people just like to go really fast, the same as a cigar can be just a cigar. I had a 24’ Lake and River runabout on Lake Powell and I just loved being able to run 550hp at WOT for miles on end the thunder echoing off the canyon walls with not a soul in sight. Where else but on the water can you run a big block Chevy motor wide open for more than a few seconds without going to jail?

 

[micksbuddy]

Some people just like to go really fast, the same as a cigar can be just a cigar. I had a 24’ Lake and River runabout on Lake Powell and I just loved being able to run 550hp at WOT for miles on end the thunder echoing off the canyon walls with not a soul in sight. Where else but on the water can you run a big block Chevy motor wide open for more than a few seconds without going to jail?

Exactly. As easy as it is to disparage someone else's choices if they don't align with your own, I think it's wrong to assume that anyone who chooses to have a go-fast boat does it solely to impress others or is compensating for some inadequacy. I'm not into the hotrod boat scene, but I have a number of pretty quick cars & motorcycles and I could care less whether others are impressed by them or not, I have them because I enjoy their aesthetics or their performance capabilities or both!

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: To the OP, are you saying you didn't like speed when you were young?

Nothing new about fast boats. What's new is the size of outboards. We have a 39' Contender for staff to use that has triple Yamaha 300's and runs 57 knots at WOT. I like speed. We have a fast boat ordered but as it's being built in Italy, at a standstill now.

Now that we have 425 hp outboards and 627 hp outboards then outboards can do it. Center consoles now with 4 x 425's.

We like speed. I love Cigarettes and such but they just have limited use.

I also don't get criticizing other's tastes in boats or anything else.

 

[Fletcher500]

So let me ask the few women on this site...... Does seeing a guy with a boat like that make you think "oooh, he's the man for me"? Or does it make you think "wow, he must have a small pee pee"?


I'm just wondering who people owning these boats think they are impressing? It seems to me they are only impressing other people like them, and not the women they are hoping to attract. Actually just the opposite.

Could the same argument be made for someone with a Nordhavn? Best not to cast stones. I also don’t get the need for 4 outboards on a 4o ft. Boat, but whatever. There is a guy a few slips down from me with one. Good guy, takes his kids out to fish, minds his own business and is a good dock neighbor.

 

[Bacchus]

Different strokes for different folks. Some like trawlers/cruisers, others prefer sailboats and a few are into compensators.

[emoji106]just think what some think about going 2-5kn and only if/when the wind blows????

 

[mahal]

I wouldn’t take the comments on this thread too seriously as most of us are just having fun. You stinkpotters.

 

[richardschmidt2759]

2700 hp

I'M still smelling that same old OB they have indeed gone nuts ! IMHO.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

You know what ? As usual, you guys are all 100% right. It isn't the boat manufacturers who have gone nuts, they are just building what some boat buyers want. I am a sometimes boat buyer so I am responsible as much as anyone.

And to accept further responsibility, I had and still have a number of "go fast" cars and motorcycles. My old pickup has a hopped up SBC and runs glass packs. My CJ5 has headers and straight pipes. I still dream of big blocks, burnt rubber and banging through a four or six speed tranny.

I'm a gearhead and shouldn't criticize any engine/car/boat combination. I just happen to like the trawler lifestyle and because I am old and probably senile I get critical of others, especially those who have toys I can't afford.

Long live diversity, big engines, go fast boats and open pipes.

pete

 

[richardschmidt2759]

stinkpotters

com'on man who don't be liken the smell of diesel in the morning ?

 

[JLD]

Wifey B: To the OP, are you saying you didn't like speed when you were young?

Nothing new about fast boats. What's new is the size of outboards. We have a 39' Contender for staff to use that has triple Yamaha 300's and runs 57 knots at WOT. I like speed. We have a fast boat ordered but as it's being built in Italy, at a standstill now.

Now that we have 425 hp outboards and 627 hp outboards then outboards can do it. Center consoles now with 4 x 425's.

We like speed. I love Cigarettes and such but they just have limited use.

I also don't get criticizing other's tastes in boats or anything else.

Ah, to be young!

I'm currently wanting a 36' boat with a 27 hp inboard. Of course, it is a sailboat!

On the other hand, I'm also wanting a new mid-engine Corvette as well!

Jim

 

[rslifkin]

I think some of the insanity evolved from something useful: the guy who regularly wants to fish places 50+ miles from home, so he buys a center console with a few huge outboards on the back, as getting there faster means more time spent fishing.

Then other people started to think having something that fast that wasn't a speedboat where you're basically strapped into a cockpit was cool, so the craziness escalated.

 

[Woodland Hills]

Ah, to be young!

I'm currently wanting a 36' boat with a 27 hp inboard. Of course, it is a sailboat!

On the other hand, I'm also wanting a new mid-engine Corvette as well!

Jim

I saw one two months ago at a gas station in Naples, Florida, it had manufacturers plates on it. Blue and black and all gorgeous!

 

[Woodland Hills]

com'on man who don't be liken the smell of diesel in the morning ?

Or the purr of 24 cylinders rumbling away.....,

 

[richardschmidt2759]

67 vet

listen to the song ,66 vet country song, bring a tear to your eye ! if you are over 70!

 

[MurrayM]

I can see the magazine ad photo...pudgy late middle aged balding guy at the helm with two or three early twenties bikini clad girls giggling & jiggling around him.

Much similar to my 'Big Truck/Little Penis" theory.