Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum. Recently did a sea trial on a pretty nice 2005 Concept 36 with triple Mercury 300xs motors. Loved the boat as it had plenty of power but my wife and kids could hardly stand the noise from the whinny two strokes when riding in the back seat. Even at 35mph it was pretty loud. I actually like the two strokes due to the light weight design and power but this may be a show stopper for me. Kinda bummed because it seems like a lot of boat for the money(90k) with motors having a little over 400 hours. Anyone have this experience? Any way to quiet these motors down?

The optimax based engines with the air injection and air compressor are quite noisy, no way to change that. Older 2-stroke Mercury EFIs are a good bit quieter but use more fuel.

If you want a quiet outboard boat, 4-strokes are the way to go. If you love the boat, you could get some decent money for those 300xs motors if you re-power it.

Appreciate the quick response. I like the boat and would be interested in repowering with 4 strokes but my concern is the weight of the 4 strokes. Three is a lot of weight and repowering with two is a lot of work. Also, what are these 300xs going for these days?

The new Merc 300 V-8 doesn't weigh much more than the 300xs but they're still about a year out on delivery of new motors. I bet you could ask $8-10k each for 300xs in good running condition.