Re: Mercruiser on the verge of bankrupt? A rumor?
I drove an older Yamaha twin engine jet boat a few years ago. The problem I had was being able to steer at low RPM through now wake zones, the boat wouldn't steer at all at idle, and even at idle, the boat was still moving far too fast for those areas. I had to run nearly 1/4 throttle to maintain control through narrow or congested areas. There was no way I'd want to be in a crowded marina situation with one of those. Reverse was about worthless too.
The boat was brand new, maybe a 2002 or 2003 model, about 17' long and over 300hp total according to the decals on the side. A buddy had bought it and took delivery of it while on vacation, never having driven a boat before, he asked me to help show him how to handle it.
It was fast and accelerated like a rocket and handled like it was on rails at speed. It would turn faster than was safe and rode worse than any boat I've ever been in, including my old trihull.
What I found was that if you bailed out of the throttle from a fast cruise, for whatever reason, the boat would drift or change direction with way to correct it without throttling up again. It had no directional stability at all. On every other boat I've driven, if you were not under power, the boat would continue on the same coarse, this would often turn sideways or drift far off coarse. I was constantly bumping the throttle to keep it headed downstream where I wanted it to go. Maintaining safe control meant going more than what I'd consider to be a safe speed through congested areas of the river or inlet.
He kept it for about a year, the dealer traded him out of it after a few hull cracks were found. The boat all but fell apart in the first few weeks. Both front seat bases shattered, I was told that they were not meant to hold more than 170lbs so those over 170 lbs should not be onboard. The dash lost every screw and fastener, they were snapping off and coming loose constantly, I finally got tired of hearing him complain about it so I took it one weekend and nut and bolted every connection with stainless Nylock fasteners. The rub rail seam was another issue, as the rivets or screws in there also kept popping loose. The dealer resecured that and resealed the area a dozen or more times.
