The proportions make it look like a 26 ft boat.

agreed…reliability is proportional to the number of parts/engines. Maintenance on 6 engines is a nightmare. Hell maintenance on 2 engines blows. I can’t imagine doing spark plugs, water impellers, oil changes, etc. no thanks.

How thick do you think the transom is? Also how much fuel do you need to carry. As for looks well,,,,,

With fly by wire controls what maneuver would this be with the engines turned out on both sides ?

I agree also.
Oh no! Outboards are maintenance free.

Every one of these threads that's the argument against inboard engines.
Total BS.
I get it they may be easier to access.
So instead of 2 diesels and whatever drive setup they have that need oil changes and other maintenance now you've got at least 4 up to 6 oil changes, supercharger belts if 400's or 450's (I know the 600's are N/A), lower unit oil, impellers.
No damn way they are less maintenance!

When the joystick is twisted from the top they will do that

All good points and I have heard about people having problems with brand new outboards and unable to get parts. Some of this is still the F@cked supply chain the other is they can't keep up with demand, either way it would suck to pay all the money to have the boat sit. The fuel cost could be a crap shoot as the price of diesel fuel will most likely keep climbing for now as Opec cut 2 million barrels a day of production yesterday. Keep in mind refineries switch over at certain times of the year from heating oil to jet fuel etc and many refineries are offline thanks to the brilliant men and women in DC.

I can only go by my own experience. I have owned a dew Cigarettes, they got driven hard but were always maintained. I never had a catastrophic failure but had my share maintenance and hours are limited before freshening up or rebuilds. I had a 50' Marquis with triple Volvo diesel motors. Fuel burn was pretty reasonable for a boat it's size. Maintenance was more expensive but hours of use between rebuilds was longer. My center motor ingested a very little bit of water into the airbox which caused a catastrophic failure. The engine itself was $48,000 not to mention the process of removing that motor and reinstalling a new one. Had it been one of the outside engines the whole deck would have had to be removed. This could have happened on new or used boat. My point is when there is a problem it can come with a bigger bill and more aggravation. I truly believe this why there is a big market for the outboards today. Are they the end all be all? No way but for the % of new boats out there to the % of problems you see I think it will continue to be the choice of the consumer. Go to any boat show today very few stern drive boats.

Adam I would guess you are right but put in the cost to maintain Mann motors and there extremely costly 1,000 service. I think it's all relative but he market was looking for an alternative time will tell.

These giant CC boats are basically outboard open pilot house yachts. This is the point when twin big hp diesels and Arnesons make way more sense. A new pair of 1800hp Cat diesels costs about $300K and another $200K gets you the Arneson drives and all the rigging (That's $100K cheaper). Then there's the maintenance and ownership costs. How can 6 outboards (72 spark plugs, 12 propellers, 6 ECUS and 6 of everything else) be easier and cheaper to own than 2 diesel engines & drives? Not to mention better weight distribution, same warranty lengths, and less fuel burn in the diesels!