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Random Quote: Bigger they are the more mess they make.
Just got back from the show. Participated in the Verado experience on the 35 Seahunter with twin 300 Verado's. Have some history on the site as being a Yamaha loyalist and not ready to trust the Verado's but gotta say these things ARE smooooth. Still have lingering concerns on long term reliability vs Yamaha but I'm now about 90% in favor of the Verado 300's vs Yamaha 350's. We'll be going with the Yellowfin 32 or SeaHunter 35 over the Pursuit 315 and Grady 305 Express. I've got both boats spec'd out and honestly they are so close that it makes for a very tough decision ahead.
good luck in what ever you decide..there ain't nothin bad out there now....but I can say that tracking 20 members with 300's we have had one lower end blow and he runs hard...other than that, the 300's are proving very reliable.....
Just got back from the show. Participated in the Verado experience on the 35 Seahunter with twin 300 Verado's. Have some history on the site as being a Yamaha loyalist and not ready to trust the Verado's but gotta say these things ARE smooooth. Still have lingering concerns on long term reliability vs Yamaha but I'm now about 90% in favor of the Verado 300's vs Yamaha 350's. We'll be going with the Yellowfin 32 or SeaHunter 35 over the Pursuit 315 and Grady 305 Express. I've got both boats spec'd out and honestly they are so close that it makes for a very tough decision ahead.
Don't know much about the 32', but YF makes great boats, you can't go wrong with either. I've sea trialed boats with Yamaha 350's and I would choose the Verado 300's any day on a lightweight cored hull like either the SH or YF. Back to back on a 31' Bahama, the holeshot of the Verado leaves the bigger Yamaha's for dead. On the top end, the larger HP comes into play and the Yamaha pulls 3-4 mph or so over the 300 V's.
I like the single lever synch of the Verados much better than the dual lever arrangement of the Yamaha's, and the VesselView is way better than the Yamaha gauges.
On the heavier boats like the Pursuit and Grady that you mentioned I might feel better with the bigger Yamaha's.
I run F250 Yamaha's but have had the pleasure of running several Verado powered Vessels. They are impressive in all aspects and have proven their reliability in the real world. If I were to repower the 300 Verado would be on the list for sure.
I was able to run on the triple 300 Etec and the dual 300 Verado boat at the show.
Indeed the Verado is super duper smooth. Like a turbine strapped to the back. Unfortunately Mercury purposefully overpropped the boat for top speed so it was kind of doggy. I took the controls on the ride back to the marina. Steering is seemless, single control operation is awesome.
The Etec boat ran very well also. Not quite as quiet as the Verados, but considering that there were 3 on the back it was pretty darn quiet. I suspect the 300 may be quieter than the 250. Of course they still need to work on controls (still had the "Livorsi" style controls).
Based on control alone I can see how people are liking the Verados.
They had a new 23/26 Seacraft with twin 250's Verados taht I wanted to ride on but it seemed to disappear and not come back.
Would love to have a single 300 on my boat with the vessel view, troll control, and all the doo-dads.
ufg8rmike - 2/17/2008 5:48 PM
We'll be going with the Yellowfin 32 or SeaHunter 35 over the Pursuit 315 and Grady 305 Express. I've got both boats spec'd out and honestly they are so close that it makes for a very tough decision ahead.
I believe that your decision will not be as difficult as you think once you get a ride in the YF 32. We demoed 6 boats at the show including the SeaHunter 35, Invincible 33, Triton 351, Venture 39, Contender 31t and Contender 33t and you'd be amazed how I'd rank each in terms of ride. Additionally I have a bunch of hours on a 34 and 36 YF.
ufg8rmike - 2/17/2008 5:48 PM
We'll be going with the Yellowfin 32 or SeaHunter 35 over the Pursuit 315 and Grady 305 Express. I've got both boats spec'd out and honestly they are so close that it makes for a very tough decision ahead.
I believe that your decision will not be as difficult as you think once you get a ride in the YF 32. We demoed 6 boats at the show including the SeaHunter 35, Invincible 33, Triton 351, Venture 39, Contender 31t and Contender 33t and you'd be amazed how I'd rank each in terms of ride. Additionally I have a bunch of hours on a 34 and 36 YF.
Same advise, make sure you do your research. I'd recommend sending Jeff a PM for his candid advise on the boats you mentioned.
Jeff, I'd like to hear your comments as well. I think it's safe to say that those on this thread so far are not bashers, and the forum might benenfit from a frank discussion of the relative merits of these boats.
I've been on most of them, and have my own comments which I'll add as well.
If the critieria is ride, and ride only, based on my experience sea trialing your list the Yellowfin will win this one, and win hands down. Although I've never been on the 32', I have been on a 36' YF, and it was the best handling CC I've ever been on.
If speed is the cirtieria, I'd have a different answer for you. If the critieria is niceities and design features, the Trition is pretty impressive, but does not have the offshore pedigree the others do.
I dont know a great deal about the larger center consoles so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The Sea Hunter 35 that I rode on (twice) planed very nicely, well constructed. Seemed like a good boat overall. Only one detractor that I noticed was backflow through the scuppers with relatively minimal backing down. Was enough to fill the gutter and was starting to splash the rear deck. This was with two Verados and empty boxes/livewells.
606zpx - 2/18/2008 4:38 AM The Etec boat ran very well also. Not quite as quiet as the Verados, but considering that there were 3 on the back it was pretty darn quiet. I suspect the 300 may be quieter than the 250. Of course they still need to work on controls (still had the "Livorsi" style controls). .
606,
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have a pair of 300HP ETECs on order and I'd love more insight to your ETEC 300 experience. Perhaps on a new thread.
Please JDBer94, post your thoughts on the mentioned boats I would love to hear how they all stack up. I couldn't make it to the show this year and will have to live vicariously through you!
I also had the peasure of a demo in both versions of the Seahunter 35 in Miami. The 300 Verados were very quiet and the controls were awesome, but, we never saw better than 40 mph burning 45 gph. The driver, Scott, said he thought there were some issues with the engines???? He drove to the bridge and I drove back and we both saw the same fuel burn. i know there are a few other boats out there with the same setup and getting much better economy!! No disrespect darb, just my observation@!!! I actually think it was over propped which killed the fuel economy! I am not a big e-tec fan but they actually did better than I thought thety would. In the calm we saw a little better economy!! 4000 rpm, 45mph, 33 gph, 1.36 mpg. That was a very short run when there weren't 30 boats running. I also talked Mike, our driver, into taking us outside for a ride in the 2 to 4"s. I was very impressed in the ride. With the bow trimmed down slightly we got into a comfortable ride at about 30mph burning about 27 gph in the slop. We came off the top of a few and landed softly without the noise I have heard about in other threads. I actually thought it was a very quiet landing. I will be taking another trip to the factory, as soon as my boat sells, for a tour and hopefully seal a deal!! I am leaning toward trip yamadog 250's, but I know that's for another thread!! JJ
Jesse, the boat was overpropped for sure. Their tests were done with 21 Tempests but they had 23 tempests on their trying to eake out top end. Top RPM on my short trip was something around 5200 or 5300. My driver told me that they did a longer run and got it to 5600rpm but clearly these are all low.
Dave, The Etecs ran quite well and I think they may actually be quieter than the 250 (new airflow design I think?). At any rate, my experience with my 250 would make it pretty hard for me to buy two, or even three, of them. Also the controls and overall smoothness of the Verado's is hard to match. I honestly dont know what I would get right now, though the Verado would rank highly based primarily on advanced controls. Yeah, everyone keeps talking about the negatives of complexity but I cannot recall reading about control failures with the Verado.
I had heard that there was to be a triple ETEC Sea Hunter, was that boat the one being referred to? Also, was the Verado boat 40 mph the best SPEED or the best economy?
I'm hoping someone can chime in with a decent report on performance figures from the sea trials of the boats mentioned.
stupid move on SH's part - the sweet spot for V300's on big boats is 19 or 21...with 19 tempests I can hit 60 on my non stepped POS wellcraft 32 burning 87 octane...
stupid move on SH's part - the sweet spot for V300's on big boats is 19 or 21...with 19 tempests I can hit 60 on my non stepped POS wellcraft 32 burning 87 octane...
Verado Experience-Miami show-35 SeaHunter
