So my port outboard motor on my 25 bertram is blown
this occured in the bahamas was thinking of repowering there but decided to ship home from marsh harbour abaco
and repower in the states
Boat currently has twin 225 mercury two strokes,
Im considering repowering with twin 150 mercury four strokes, twin yamaha 150 or twin 175 suzukis
has anyone had some experience with any of these engines
Is anyone concerned that the boat would be underpowered
mainly going to be used trolling and running over to the bahamas
looking for efficiency not a speed
I have twin 150 Yamahas on my 24 Pursuit and they run flawlessy and are plenty of power -- but my Pursuit is a Center Console and only 8'6" beam so while I get low cruise of 26kts and high cruise of 34kts and get 2.1 miles per gallon at high cruise -- you aren't going to get that with the B25 -- you probably want 200hp per side.
I have run the 175 and the Yamaha 150. The Suzuki has a lower gear ratio and turns a bigger wheel. I believe they have a longer warranty as well. They are very quiet and fuel efficient. The downside to them is finding an experienced tech to maintain them. I lost a 140 Zuke due to poorly performed maintenance. The 150 are quiet and easy on fuel. I love they way the sound when called on. I believe you would be better served with the Suzukis or a larger Yamaha. The 150 may be a little underpowered on a 25. I have no time with a Merc so I cant tell you anything about them.
Best of luck.
Well, im not experienced on this at all....but I have seen a lot of pictures of 25's with a single 200 outboard...and ive seen a couple with even a single 175. So if your doubling that....I would think you could go even as low as twin 125's. I'm just using theory and no experience. I know a boat personally here, that us a 20'-22' cat...that runs with small 70hp yamahas.
No clue how much downsizing will effect the performance or stress on the motors though.
Spencer, I am assuming that the redundancy of twins is important to you. The new four strokes or even ETECs are so reliable you might want to consider the massive efficiency gain that one gets by going to a single engine. A bigger single will get you both performance and efficiency, but not a redundant powerplant. My B20 has an single I/O and I regularly do a 45 Nautical mile run in about an hour to an hour and fifteen depending on sea state and achieve about 4 Nmpg.
You should be just fine with the twin 150’s either Yamaha’s or Suzuki’s. I have a B25 with twin 3.0’s and cruise at 27 - 29 mph at 3500 rpm spinning 14x19 wheels getting right at 2 mpg. I would think twin outboards on a bracket should get better mileage and a higher cruise speed not to mention a much higher top speed. I have several friends with the twin Yammies on their boats and they are bulletproof. My friend did have to repower last year when the port engine died but he had close to 3200 hours on the clock. Someone actually gave him 3K for the pair. The only catch is the 15k per side. Good luck.
Spencer,
I would go with twin 4 stroke Suziki's in the 150 to 175 range. My brother in law has a single 250 Suziki on a heavy wet 23' Boston Whaler Conquest walk around with a 1/2 tower. J have to look at the tach to see if it running it's so quite, good fuel burn and good hole shot, no smoke uses it in both Sebago Lake and Atlantic Ocean off of North Shore of Boston. The service and sales is Nick's Creative Marine on Blue Heron Blvd in Rivera Beach on the right side just before you get to Australian Ave, he was my GM at Jupiter before I almost bought the company in 1998 but my accountant found problems with the books and it killed that deal. The warranty is better than Yamaha and they are a few pounds lighter. Good luck, also look at the E-tech Evinrude 2 stroke much lighter than both Suziki and Yamaha and they have excellent fuel burn numbers and speed rating also good warranty. The Mercury motors haven't impressed me very much in the past 10 years and I sold and did PR for them for 8 years in the 80's and early 90's. Good luck with the repower
The new 150hp Mercury is a completely new and different beast. 3.0 liters and only 150hp. Same displacement as your current engines. It can swing a 16 inch diameter prop as well. Give them a good long look as they are new.
150 ETECS are great engines with reliability. The 2 strokes have less moving parts. I use to run them professionally for years. Ran the snot out of them and they just kept performing wonderful.
Remember one thing - similar engines by the same manufacturer are based on the exact same block... IOW, what's basically the same engine is offered in increasing (HP) ratings... What you should remember here is that the higher the rating the lower the life expectancy of the engine... Simply put, at the higher rating the engine is working harder to get those extra horses...
Basically, the higher ratings give you more HP for a given engine (weight, volume etc)... In certain situations (e.g. racing, LE, CG/navy etc) getting the absolute most HP for a given weight is a huge consideration... I'm not in the racing business nor am I operating an LE, CG or naval vessel so personally I prefer to stick with the lower ratings of any given engine...
Thanks guys for all the responses
Still deciding what to do , boat is still not back yet
Marlin, very tempting but part of the family
Might end up keeping one of the Bertram's here in fl and one in the Bahamas
I'll keep up with posting the progress when it starts ,but I'm going to strip all the old wiring and hoses
Replace and repower
HA! I've been debating power choices for over 5 years and in my research I have yet to find a combination that has not worked on a B25 - single/twin I/Os, single/twin outboards, diesels...doesn't seem to matter a great deal. If you like the performance of the 225's, you'll probably like any twin outboard combination in the 150 - 200 range. Price, warranty and service availability in your area(s) might be the deciding factors.
What type/make of bracket are you running? Does it have some flotation? Is it set up for 25" shaft engines? Does it conform to the curved hull shape?
Interesting routing of the engine controls.
Good Luck!
Cam
1963 Bertram 25
1973 Boston Whaler 13 - sold!
1998 Scout 172 SF - beach taxi
Spencer,
When your looking to repower remember that the new 4 stroke engines are a lot heavier than the older 2 stroke 225's. A Yamaha 350 comes in around 825 pounds compared to 575 for the old 225 Merc's. So the weight is a major concern when buying new power plants. 250 pounds per side is like putting 4 more people at the transom( at an average of 150 per body). Also the added cost of 4 strokes can kill your first hand price estimate. Spencer, I am now living in Peabody, Ma for the next few years. Good luck on the repower choices.
Pete Fallon
Keep on eye out for these numbers. I would theorize the end numbers are above 45mph at WOT. Looks like a nice set up. Another guy on classicseacraft just did a 25bertram with twin 115hp and is very happy with the performance.
Just by comparison, my 2470 Pursuit CC has twin 150 yamaha two strokes that are fuel injected. The motors push the boat easily and it is on plane in a heartbeat.
But, dry weight on my boat is 3600lbs - add in full load of fuel (150 gallons) and 2 people and you get to just under 5,000lbs and my boat top speed is 44kts. That is with a t top and painted bottom. Low cruise is 26kts and high cruise is 32kts.
I'm also only 8'6" on the beam. So while I consider these motors the perfect choice for my boat, I'm thinking they are bare minimum for a B25. I should note, this is the same motor that Yamaha squeezed 225hp out of so while it is a lighter 2 stroke, it isn't a small motor.
