the new 300xs's are the way to go IMO. and cp not sure how old of 225's you have dealt with but they did call the opti pops for a reason LOL... I had one on my last bass boat... sold it and two weeks later POP!!!! LOL. and as far as sound...the 2.5's sound pretty bad ass to me!!! the new 300xs's not so much but the fuel savings and reliability is way better than the 2.5's. if you want to do some mods after warranty is out take a look at David Bush Racing (DBR) and there have been some good things said about STR (Shaun Terrete) in Florida, he races outboards in Europe i believe, so you have options with the 300's and i would think that there will be more down the road unless Mercury has something new coming out that would slow the mods on the 300's but I have not heard of anything yet.

who works on your engines? maybe give david wade marine in baton rouge a shout and hopefully they can help you gain some more confidence in your mercury outboards. they can also help you out with your velocity too. they are a dealer and a certified warranty/service center for mercury outboards, verado, mercruiser, and mercury racing (sterndrives and outboards).

Correction: Shaun Torrente

300XS pros: You will have outboards

700 cons: You won't have outboards

:whistle:

Agree on twin outboard, I don't think I'd ever go back to single engine anything once you get used to twins you'll agree. The 700 would sound better with the cam and blower whine but I'd take that trade for twins. In the for what it's worth category if your plan is to run 20 MPH that's probably not going to work as well as you think. Granted my boats a 32 but I fight to stay on plane at anything below 30 and the boat really doesn't start to handle until you get to 60 (below that it tends to lean out in turns etc) and really starts working right once you get into the mid 70's. That said I run around in the 65 range all the time and it's fine but don't think I could do 20's, I don't think any of the cats are designed to do that.

As for getting in and out of the boat it will be easier with the twins because you can come up between them, hopefully the platform is set at the right height so it doesn't interfere with the tunnel but sets low enough that you can slide on it from the water otherwise you can either add a ladder to the bottom of it or use the motors as a step. I had a ladder and got rid of it because it really wasn't necessary on ours but your transom design may be different.

Good luck both packages are nice but on the cost side it's a whole lot cheaper (and WAY easier) to rebuild outboards than it is a 700, but I guess that gets into how often you use the boat and how long you plan to keep it.

+ docking would be a heck of a lot easier with the twin outboards than with single I/O

The 300xs is a nice motor, however not faultless. I mashed a piston on mine a short while ago at 150hrs. Unfortunately I was just out of warranty so I had to rebuild at my cost. Mercury don't sell replacement sleeves for the bores, just complete block! I was lucky enough to know a guy who had a few that had blown also and we removed a good sleeve from one of them and used in mine. Cost me $3000 (aus dollars) with me doing all the work to rebuild.
What I did learn from it was
1. Use nothing but mercury premium plus outboard oil. Other TCW3 oils carbon up a lot and I think contributed to my blow up.
2. Re-ring engine at 150hrs regardless as the 300xs motors have very tight tolerances and we have seen quite a few break rings over 150hrs run time (the oil you use is very important for this reason)

Having said all this, you could also consider a 250 pro Xs (technically 275hp). Come with 5 years warranty and don't seem to be having the issues the 300's are having?

Havent heard too much issues on the 300xs...and the ones that i have heard have happened very early. They might not have the big block sound...but thats the only drawback from the ob's.

What kind of cat? New or used? I have a couple of new 25 and 30ft Liberator cats for sale. Both have twin 300XS motors. Click here to see them.
http://liberatorfl.tripod.com/id19.html

CP, what year are your optis?