This

Is

A great

Article

Sorry to spam your thread, but I didn't have 10 posts, and wanted to share this article for you.

https://www.boatingmag.com/boats/to-v-or-not-to-v/

I was looking at a Regal 322 a while back. Had 454's and V-drives. Bilge was waay tighter than my 29 Fountain with 2 BBCs. Starters were on top so I suppose that's a plus, but anything down low would have been a nightmare.The same boats I saw online with outdrives seemed to have much more room in the bilge. Guess it varies from boat to boat.

I was pleasantly surprised with it's docking manners. I was able to back it into a narrow slip with ~15 MPH side wind with no issues at all and I had never driven a V-drive cruiser before. From what I gathered, stern drive is faster with same power. Maint is less with V-drive and if it's wet slipped in salt water, the V-drive is definitely the way to go. The boat I looked at needed a rudder cable. Asked around but no one knew if that meant removing an eng or 2. Boat had other issues too so I passed.

V-drives are absolutely slower so therefore burn more gas.......maintenance will be easier though. Speeds are probably 5-7 mph off between the 2 (guessing based on my old cruisers from the 1990s/2000s.)

We work on inboards and v drives everyday. Don’t buy a stern drive boat that will live in a slip. Way too much maintenance that needs haulout. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread 340 sea rays with 496’s. Pretty much my favorite all around weekend boat, fast, good size cabin, good engine room access, great cockpit layout, easy to get a slip for. All around tough to beat.

Unless you're talking about one of the newer model cruisers with the Volvo IPS "pods" - which are essentially forward facing duo-prop outdrives, but mounted on the bottom instead of at the transom - I would much prefer a v-drive to a stern drive I/O style cruiser..to the point I personally wouldn't buy a mid to large cruiser with outdrives. To be clear, I'm talking about a cruiser with enough beam that it's not trailerable.

Most of the reasons have already been listed here, and there's lots of info available, but I don't know of a manufacturer still making a dedicated cruiser that's equipped with outdrives so what's that tell you?

RE steering and dock manners: once you get the hang of it, controlling the boat with the sticks - instead of the wheel - will be 2nd nature and much easier than docking a single engine anything in my opinion.

My oldest son was teaching a boater new to twins and had about the simplest description I've ever heard.

- Never come into a mooring any faster than you're willing to hit the wall or dock
- Rudder or drives centered, and think bicycle handlebars...starboard is achieved by forward gear on the port screw or drive and reverse on the starboard....exactly as if you were steering a bicycle pushing the left side forward and pulling the right side backward. Vice versa for port turn.
- Reverse stick is always the first action because it's the one that slows you down and usually needs more time because props don't bite as well in reverse.

You'll fine tune it, and add some throttle when dealing with wind or current, but rudder and shafts are simple once you get the hang of it....especially if you've ever driven a skid steer loader or bulldozer.

cheers

d

V drives handle better around the docks.

you really have to compare alI 3 types... Stern, v drive, true inboard

Mechanics that say they hate v drives are likely inboard guys. inboard means easier maintenance at the expense of interior space. V drives get the interior space of the stern drive with the great dock handling and keep in water reliability of inboards.... at the expense of being compact in the engine room. Stern drives are more efficient at the expense of reliability