I looked at a 50.1 Pershing but it seemed cramped everywhere. The cockpit, the galley, the shower, the staterooms. The layout needed to be 60’+ to work probably.

I think at 50’ a bigger cockpit express style day boat with a single cabin would still work better.

I love surface drives. I did Diesel engine development for years. maybe I know too much, but I’m leery of them. Pleasure craft get the hottest tune ups, and the expected life is banking on them spending a lot of time idling. And you have to be mindful of the engine load at WOT and cruise, so you can’t really play with props. Assuming you even want to pay for a different set.

So many things to go wrong, turbos, high pressure fuel pumps, injectors, after coolers, water pumps, transmissions. I appreciate the simplicity of a light weight naturally aspirated gasser that I can replace for the cost of one Diesel engine service.

All of that being said, the Cummins qsb is a good value I think. And it’s ubiquitous. You just won’t be able to push much boat with 2 of them.

You know we just took those babies all of the way up to 2433hp each?

That’s the 32b’s. We have the c32 acerts.
our cruise is 30-32 knots at 1950. Be interesting to see how it went with the 32b’s

i agree 100% with that statement about the 50 Pershing. It’s too much stuff crammed into a 50ft boat. We almost bought a 5X a couple years ago but the Intrepid 475 was a much better overall boat/layout. I think that’s about the mesh point when talking about OB vs Diesel is that 50ft range.

i also agree with what you’re saying and the people claiming that their Mans or MTU can go 6000hrs before a rebuild. Yeah maybe if you’re trolling 80% of the time in a sportfish, but reality is these Arneson boats leave the dock and run 80% load until they get to their next stop and are pretty much ready for rebuilds at 2000 hours.

If you shop the engine ratings online, you’ll note that the constant use commercial boat applications have ratings that are 10%+ lower than the pleasure craft. And they aren’t painted white 😂

i,m a boat wrench and ill take an engine room to repair a big diesel anyday over the outboard rack style new builds. the new 400 450s 600s are not field rebuildable or fixable merc want,s them removed and exchanged so you have to haul the boat and remove the engine with an issue and send it to merc for repair theres not to much that can be done in the water....a boat with big diesel inboards is tough and runs well for often thousands of hrs a fixable proven power system! if you watch the many haulover or miami river videos there is almost always a big 4,5 or 6 engine rig with an engine tilted out of the water , i dont think there as reliable as we are being told.

I reckon Oscar Wilde was thinking as a ‘boatie’ when he was quoted saying…..

“There are only two tragedies in life: One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

​​​​​Boat owners will never stop wanting more HP and manufacturers will keep searching for it.

RR

If you have six outboards, and one dies, you have five engines left to take you to the marina.

Lifting off the engine and replacing it with a new engine can be done in an afternoon. Minimum time on the water lost. Perfect if you have a multi-million dollar boat, and only 10 days in the year when you can use it.

They also may realize they should have built the boat with five engines.

A service dept manager at a Platinum Mercury dealer told me 15 years ago that a quad Verado Midnight Express was killing him with problems, he joked and said look at the trouble you have had with twins, why would you want 4 motors! So while 4 will take you to the marina and they can be swapped in an afternoon how pissed are you if they can't find a lower in stock and you are entitled to the part for free but its on backorder (now X 4 or 5 motors). You almost should order your multi engine boat, then order another motor just as a spare!