Just curious
 

Just curious... It's coming up on 2 years since the. Farm Boat was going to put Outerlimits in its place and show the world what a real powerboat could do.. Any updates?

Some moonshiner stole the engine cover and put it on his pickup truck.

My guess is it is no longer a priority at Iconic.

Im hearing a 42' TS Outlaw is in the works to take the title..............:grinser010:

I think you're correct. What good is the speed record in a one off unique boat do in a center console world ?

so they aren't going to run the company into the ground chasing a record and turning Iconic fountain into ironic fountain ?

Ahh winter

i heard they made it into a chicken coop.

Sterling took their engines back.

All that marketing all over the earth about the big run did not produce any new boat sales so hence why its not even on the bucket list anymore, also not to keep throwing dead money into it. That money will never be recoup from the past, the present or future. Basically all that hype did nothing and did not produce one boat sale.. That old saying win on Sunday sell on Monday does not apply currently like it did way in the past. . Ford vs Ferrari or in this case Fountain vs Outerlimits. End of story

^^^ the boat had to "win" in order to sell on Monday - it was a flop overall in terms of what was promised leading up to the run so why would a person spend 10x on a new boat that was basically no better than the boat they are currently running and probably paid for.

Granted, the Fountain following is solid but with the rebirth, people would also expect innovation in performance and design. When you look at the finesse that was thrown at the engine hatch, no amount of "new" boat smell could get past that - sleek and Sexy was never ever a comment that came out.

Definitely not being a title breaker and the O/B performance (CC and sport) market is impacting sales as that is the principal demand in this era

Wasn't that particular boat supposed to be racing by now?

Reggie has always been a salesman and that project may have been his last.

Dude, you know that Ford won in the end right? :)

I think the CC market and the OB market is already on the decline, or will be soon. Couple of my buddies and customers went out and spent a fortune on these outboard boats and sure, are they reliable, fuel efficient , and somewhat quick? sure. But at the end of the day, they are bored. No feeling of the raw horse power, the noise, etc.

to each their own, but i think it was a fad and more stern drive boats will be back to being built. Now if someone could just do something about the insane pricing for merc stuff and offer a competing unit for less money with a warranty program. The upcharge on this stuff is asinine.

Can they still build a 42 poker run? One with 1650s set up by JT would be pretty wild.

I think you are absolutely incorrect by a country mile and then some. About the only segment keeping sterndrives worth producing are cruisers, and even they are going to OB power now.
But back on the topic here, I think being as far off as as FarmBoat was after all of the talk really reflected very poorly on Fountain and Iconic. And I think the entire cobbled together look of the boat was also a poor reflection of the fit and finish they can (maybe...) produce, and then that wasn't helped by them showing that Donzi 44 cat that appeared to have the entire interior squished together by silicone and appear to be an afterthought. I don't see much positive business strategy to keep pushing the kilo issue until they come up with something that can actually do it.

I like fountain powerboats but I don’t think they will ever build anything like this


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Depends where you live and how you boat.

I can assure you our group down here is not bored and no one is missing their BBC i/o boats enough to ever go back to them

Couldn't disagree more, most manufacturers are going to OBs in all their classes of boats. Count me in on the OB wave next boat I purchase. The old gear-head HP dudes are getting old and getting out, the new generations don't really give a hoot about boating let along fire breathing monsters.

Exactly and Ford sales increased was my point here. Its all about sales for the bottom line.

it would be faster than farm boat

QFT--I drive by the Tiara factory in West Michigan on a daily basis where the final detail is done in front of big glass windows and by far most are rigged with OB's regardless of size and configuration.

If you go to the Miami boat show its all Outboards - Jet skis - and wake boats.

Will add as of the end of Oct 2019 new boat / engine package sales -- everything was down from 1.5 to 40 percent except wake boats in which was up 3 percent compared to end of Oct 2018 new sales.

I/O s was down 12 percent.

Mercruiser and Volvo and Ilmor I/O s have not even sold 8 K worth of new gas engine packages. That's all 3 combined for this sales figure.

Indmar out sells Mercruiser 2 to 1. And they have out sold Mercruiser for the past 8 years

ILmor sells not that far off compared to Mercruiser for new engine packages.

Its not good at all for I/O sales. Sales do not even pay the lite bill

Only my opinion but I certainly hope not. :)
Of all the amazing boats Cigarette has built over the years, that's not the best looking one.

RR

Eye opening last year standing in the middle of the cigarette booth . I just stood there and was in awe of the fact that they had one , one , 38 top gun in display . Everything else was outboard CC’s ... were talking about THE cigarette boat company. Think about it ..OL and skater were the only IO performance boats there that I remember.

And the 2019 Lake Havasu street party had only 5 I/O s - and out of those 5 - I/O s at the show --- Lavey Craft / RPM was the only brand new boat at that show, The 4 other I/O s were the -- OL 29 a used boat about 5 years old. IMCO Hallet in which is about 10 years old, and then 2 other I.O s -- 20 year old plus old boats - One was a old scarab that prob had a weak transom - and another old boat with blower engines and twin carb set up. I know this cause I attend all the major events every year

No one is doing any real engineering on I/O boats.

other than the Merc 4 valve cammers the rest are based on the BBC. Oldschool. Even the LS motors are what a 20 year old car design?

OB’s are reliable because they spend time engineering them for the boating environment. But if I was paying close to 120k for 900HP it better be reliable! LOL

That`s an understatement.

Will add Indmar is all Ford Raptor base in which is not old tech actually that's fairly new. And all others but Mercruiser is GM --- GEN V Direct injection VVT engines. Even ILmor uses this platform. Volvo penta in 2014 was the first to use the DI - VVT Gen V platform when GM put forth that Gen V DI VVT platform fairly close in timeframe. Volvo Penta started with a 4.3 V 6 as I know I drove their test model with the engineers on board before it ever came out to the public. . .

Mercruiser black side only has one big block only and its done 2 ways 380 hp and a 430 hp - All engines today for rec boats in the USA are Catalyst engines with O2 sensors - about 4 years they finally incorp wideband O2 as one set to replace the narrow band O2 s. Catalyst marine gas engines been like since 2008 California models and 2010 the rest of the USA. Indmar started CAT engines in 2006.

Also indmar last year came out with a Ford ecoboost SC 4 banger super lite engine with 350 hp. That is not old tech at all especially for a marine engine. Just saying for jist of info

DdI a guy with a (however fast boat) just call out a 180 mph boat?

Good info BUP, I forgot about the raptor. Are most of those motors you listed other then the V6 and ECO SC4 used in the tow boat market?

In the performance world I have wondered why a closed cooled LT4 Direct injected motor hasn't been used. (600ish TQ and 650 HP).

https://www.schwartzperformance.com/...en-5-19417413/

For someone like me the issue is the cost of newer performance boats with OB's. Almost all are CATs and not only is the price out of reach the cost of insuring a cat (In Fl) is stupid.

Even converting something like mine over to OB's doesn't make much sense from a cost compared to rebuilding the current motors when they are needed, and a CC just isn't for me.

500 hp and down are federal mandated CAT emission controlled engines but on the wakeboard market even the 550 hp engines are CAT engines because the are used for wake surfing -- so less emissions behind the boat, The wake boats used this to their advantage selling their boats and marketed --- cleaner burning engines behind the boat so OWNERS DO NOT DIE nor GET sick when performing activities behind the boat. In 2006 this was indmar and Malibu main marketing - cleaner burning engines. Hence the reason why they went to a CAT engine before they ever had to by law.

Anyways here is the GM list of who is using the GM direct injection platform - if you notice Indmar and Mercruiser are not on it anymore.

Indmar went to Ford and Roush Racing for the Marine Raptor app and Mercruiser for the black side is 30 year old internal engine design but use a USA foundry to make their blocks. Mercruiser uses zero GM parts anymore.

https://www.gmpowertrain.com/marine.html

here is the V6 4.3 that Volvo stated with in 2014 from GM

This is the engine in a Regal I/O I tested for the day back in 2014 --- before it was release to market.

https://www.gmpowertrain.com/engines/4-3l-lv1.html

LOL, yea having a clean exhaust is a good idea behind wake surfing boats! We didn't need to worry when I was trick skiing and barefooting, we were far enough behind.

I have been to that site and got a quote from marine power for the 550 HP bobtail motor as a repower. The air boat guys are getting 1500-1800 hours before top ends on those and about 3000 before rebuilds. That sounds pretty good to me, two year warranty. Still not the 5-7 but not bad.

That was last summer and they told me that GM was working on making the LT4 a marine engine but I don't think they have done it yet.

Great info BUP, thank you.