Bombardier Recreational Product's (BRP) Evinrude division has finally started taking the offensive regarding their E-TEC technology. There have been a couple of attention-getting (read "odd") commercials on the tube lately (including one with a fat guy in a G-string), as well as a 30 minute infomercial comparing the 2-stroke E-TEC to the 4-stroke Yamaha F-series and the Mercury Verado.

In general, they make a strong case for the E-TEC, although I found one of their side-by-side challenges a bit misleading. In the challenge I am refering to, they put a 225 E-TEC and an F-225 Yamaha 4-stroke side-by-side on a large center console, then ran the boat flat-out with only one engine. With the Yamaha, the boat never got on plane, and they recorded a maximum speed of 13 mph. With the E-TEC, the boat managed to break onto plane, and once on plane, accelerated up to 30 mph. They made a point of emphasizing the speed difference, which is a bit misleading - if the boat could have gotten on plane with the F-225, it is likely that the Yamaha could have produced speeds not that different from thre E-TEC. The real point is that the Yamaha did not have the torque necessary to bring the boat on to plane, but the E-TEC did.

Think that the Yamaha was mispropped? There was a discussion thread on www.thehulltruth.com about the informercial, and two of the people posting comments were involved in the tests. Those people are both Yamaha and Evinrude dealers, and they stated that Bombardier encouraged them to prop the F-225 any way they wanted. They had the F-225 turning 5900 RPM at Wide-Open-Throttle (WOT), but just could not get the big center console on plane with the Yamaha. One of them did comment that the F-225 is known to be a little weak on torque, so it's clear to us why Evinrude picked this particular size motor. But the fact remains that the E-TEC clearly had a better hole shot than the F-225. Interestingly enough, Evinrude also had them leave the Yamaha down in the water (but not running), and the E-TEC was still able to get the boat on plane.

Along a similar note, Powerboat Reports' March 2005 Issue did a comparison of the Verado 250, the Yamaha 4-stroke F-250, and an E-TEC 250, running three identical hulls, and letting each manufacturer fine tune the boat. In their tests, they ultimately picked the Verado, but if you looked closely at the results, you would see the motors were not all that much different in performance, fuel economy, and noise levels. The E-TEC, as you might imagine, was faster, had better acceleration and average noise levels. The Mercury was the quietest and had the best fuel economy. But the differences were not that big. They did not measure emissions, and did not take into account cost of operation.

Finally, Trailer Boats magazine's September 2004 issue had a 90 HP outboard motor shootout titled: "Bantamweight Brawl". Now in general, these articles are useful, but the thing that really annoys me is that they always seems to leave out one or more of the major players. In this case, the missing player is Yamaha. They tested the Evinrude E-TEC 90, the Mercury Optimax 90, the Honda BF90, the Tohatsu (Nissan) 90DI, and the Suzuki DF90. But no Yammie. Oh well...still, some very interesting stuff: Evinrude's E-TEC came out the the fastest, had the best acceleration, had fuel mileage only slightly less than the Honda, and was only 4 dB louder than the Honda.

So...I'd say all signs are that BRP will have a winner in the E-TECs, especially if their claims about reliability and maintenance costs prove true. Only time will tell!

Went out to the Coronados again. Averaged 4.2 mpg. Motor continues to start on the first try, even though we forgot to prime the fuel bulb.

FF41 was off again, but we think it could be either the fact that much of the day was at idle speeds, or there was air trapped in the line because we forgot to prime the fuel bulb.

Disengaged the AP12 when idling, was OK all day. Needs to be compensated, however. Will not accurately hold a course set by the GPS.

Encountered some sticking of the left trailer brake. Removed and regreased the left bearing, broke apart the brake, and hit the interior components with Corrosion-X, etc. Lots of corrosion, including the star adjuster wheel. Also, there is a small clip holding on the magnet which was worn thru - it appears to only be needed to hold the magnet on the arm during assembly, so I did not replace the clip.

Took the boat out with the new motor. Great economy, but the motor was not as smooth as we‘d have liked. At idle, there is some sort of harmonic, causes a rattle in the port bow area - perhaps the tank vent hose? But the noise level is much lower than before (just not whisper-quiet).

There was a little smoke occasionally, after running at higher speeds for some time, but turning the motor off, then back on, got rid of it. Probably the computer adding more oil during break-in. Oil consumption looked like half the tank at the end of the day! But it turns out Sunset Marine had put in less than half a gallon of oil, so it was hard to tell how much oil had really been used.

Started with the 13.75 x 15" blades on the Piranha. The performance was exactly like the old 90 HP (30 mph @ 5000 rpm WOT). Changed to the 14x13", got to 5500 rpm, 30+ mph with 5 gallons in the bait tank, better hole-shot, so I decided to stay with these blades. Optimum cruise was at 4500 rpm. 4.9 MPG! Took the boat out into the open ocean, averaged 4.1 MPG cruise fully loaded.

The trailer brakes were not working at the start of the day. Also front trailer running light were out. But at the end of day, they were working. . .hmmm. Probably a grounding issue. Sprayed Corrosion Block on the grounding points for the lights and the brakes.

Fishing was good for bonito, but a lot of seals.

The FF41 fuel flow meter is now almost exactly dead-on. At the end of the trip, read 13.9, actual was 14.0. But we noticed something interesting - we left the ignition key on during thr trip home, and by the time we got to the gas station, the meter read 16.1! There must be a fixed offset to compensate for low flow rate error, and by leaving the key on, it continued to tick up the fuel. Wonder if that was what was causing the error all along?

Followed the Simrad tech‘s advice - took the AP12 off "Navigate" whenever I was in neutral, and the AP12 worked fine all day. No unexpected hard right turns. Promising, but we'll need to see over a longer term.

The hull's stern light was not working. Turns out Sunset Marine had disconnected the light while cleaning house in the stern, and forgot to re-attach it. Found the wires buried on the far starboard side inside the transom. Also replaced the starboard rod tube on the bait tank, which was cracked.

The fenders are the right width, but too long by a couple of inches to fit in between the step pads. I decided to return them to West Marine rather than try to force them to fit.

Noticed the MotorGuide trolling motor lower unit is showing some rust stains on the lower unit paint. Need to investigate.

Called Piranha propellers for some ideas on how to remove the hub from the old motor. They suggested that since their props have a lifetime guarantee on the hub, get the hub off any way I could, then send them the pieces and they would send a new hub. Called Sunset Marine back to tell them this, but when I did, they told me that they had managed to get the hub off by letting the sun heat it up, so I‘m good to go.

Also decided to replace the fenders on the trailer with wider versions, to see if that would eliminate the brake residue that keeps getting thrown up on the hull. Found the West Marine in Oceanside (hint - it's not even close to the water or the harbor), and picked up some galvanized fenders - 9" wide, they might do it.