I have always marveled at the engineering behind Seven Marine outboards. Their design was amazing and they really pushed the boundaries of what everyone thought was possible. It was bad news to hear that Volvo Penta, who acquired a majority stake in 2017, would cease production in Jan 2021.

There is always more to it than a PR statement can justify. But, here is a deep dive and a bit of a tip of the cap to Eric, Rick and Brian Davis who built the company in Wisconsin from a concept to reality. It's a great story with a somewhat sad ending.

https://www.wavetowave.com/home/2020...gy-up-in-smoke
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Great article, but reading about all of those "specialized parts supply chain" would make me real nervous if I owned those OB's even when they were in production.

The Yamaha 425 is the killer, made for big heavy boats and a worldwide parts and service network.

Agree with you there. And yes the Yamaha 425 is a beast, the 425 HP belies what a torque monster it is.

But it’s SOOO effin heavy.

That sits on boats that are also so effin heavy. Not like anyone is out racing with 425 yammers

True, but for a 300 lb weight savings, mercury 400’s make more sense. Just one a holes opinion.

After living in the Silicon Valley for thirty years with a high rate of acquisition and management changes that article seems about right. Sounds like some amazing accomplishments with that outboard.

i am merc for going fast and Yamaha fishing. To me they don’t cross markets. Would never build a play boat with yamahas and never would build a fishing boat or big cruiser with merc. To different motors

My statement is from personal experience on the weight side. I am In the process of having my outboard boat re-powered and wanted the Yamaha 425’s, but I couldn’t get insurance due to the extra weight on the transom. My boat came with twin 350 verados from the factory and the 425 seemed like a great upgrade up to insurance time. So it’s getting a “new to us” pair of 400’s.

This makes no sense as we maintain hundreds of Mercury powered fishing boats in south Louisiana. We also handle much of the Mercury powered charter fleet in Venice and those guys are putting 1200-1500 hours per year on their engines and replace them/the boat after about 3 years or near 5000 hours. A lot of them have made the switch from Yamaha to Mercury because of the problems they had with their Yamahas.