mikebrls is at my marina. Dude, you might know them, two of the guys I am taking about are 1/4 mile away from Gateway. One is Coquina cove in the Yellowfin and one is at Two Georges (light grey Intrepid). Both Yammy guys & both change out in around 2 years.

Heck, Dave, the Yellowfin guy does a new Yellowfin every 4-5 years. And they are not ragged but have a couple thousand hours on them.

FWIW a good friend of mine has 800 on his Invincible with trip 300's and its 3 years old. Isnt that normal?

Everyone says they like the reliability of a outboard.

The seven is still a car motor.

I just have a hard time wrapping my brain around putting that much weight and torque on a transom and having it stay in one piece,,,,

I don't know that seven marine had a gearcase that would work in a surfacing application. I don't know how durable their midsection would be as well since it would take a pretty good beating.

But also consider the couple thousand hours usually includes a high amount of idle hours and less at wide open. The fishing guys also like the high number stickers too, triple 350s are better than triple 300's just in the dockside smack talk.

While that is true I have heard nothing but good things about the reliability of the 7 marine so far. Few people on THT with a couple hundred hrs and ZERO issues to date. Also You get amazing service I heard from the team at 7 marine.

Folks, you have to go back to why the "7" was developed. Their ultimate goal was to reduce the number of actual outboards required to perform. Those bigger motors are not going to like 'free spinning' and 'hooking' on the back of a cat or something that's going to leave the water often.

Hence, they have been designed and marketed toward the bigger fishing boats and center consoles.

The value of center consoles has made ordering new every few years viable. The used engines retain pretty good value in the 500-1000hr range if they are 250-300 yamahas, any verado or a suzuki. The new power can be financed affordably too.

I saw an intrepid 475 with black hullsides with red boot stripes and 4 white 627s, holy **** it was amazing. One of my favorite powerboats I've ever seen. I haven't been able to find pics of it online.

Didn't I read somewhere that the 7 motors had some weird reliability issues ? Something about vibration or resonance caused by mounting multiple engines ? Seems like it was only on the outside engines and not the center or maybe the other way 'round?

I wish I could remember where I heard or read about it. It's been a while and I'm sure they've got it sorted out by now.

I'm not confirming your information, but I do offer this picture from the interwebs: