Twins or trips?
 

Hey guys. I was getting ready to mount a pair of Yamaha 300s I just bought on my manta 32’ CC and then came into a deal on 5 more Yamaha 300s with 180-350 hours for 8k a pop minus lower units so have a bunch of spare bullets for my boats. The Colombian dea sold them to the guy I bought them from. I am a “no such thing as too much Hp” kinda guy so want to install a third 300 on my boat. The Armstrong bracket on the boat is for twins. I was wondering if I can reinforce the bracket and maybe add a few more bolt holes to attach it to the transom. I wanted to buy a pair of merc 450s next year for it. But this is a much cheaper route and don’t think there would be a huge weight difference between trip Yam 300s and a pair of 450s. What are you guys thoughts. Thanks in advance for any insight, RM

check under the cowlings to see if there is a white powdery surprise from Columbia ;-)

trips is a lot of weight for a 32. The third engine never adds as much speed as you think but certainly adds fuel consumption and maintenance costs. Honestly, I would leave twins on a 32.

You might want to check the power rating on your Armstrong as well re: 450 twins planned for
next year

Stick with 2 300 hp Yamahas on that transom.

Instead of mounting a third Yamaha, just have one more spare engine keeping the others company.

Wait a few years and get a fast boat with 450Rs.

You`re not cool unless you have at least 6 egg beaters hanging off the back so....

i shipped the boat down from fl. It was crazy tho homeland security went to the marina and checked out the boat before the shipper picked it up.

I will run it with twins. I think it will max out at around 70mph

I want to go faster than 70. Was thinking a third engine as I have three spares now

I plan to call them and get their opinion. The guy that owns manta and built the boat told me to go for it tho.

Adding a 300 I paid 8k for to get me 900 ponies is a heck of a lot less coin them Merc wants for the 450s and then I have a huge 60% tax when they come into Colombia.

keep in mind that third lower unit is gonna add drag too, so your gains will be affected by that.

exactly. adding a 3rd engine is a huge diminishing return. On the triple outboard cats we used to rig, they would out-accelerate the same hull with twins but weren't as fast you may think. And that's on a cat where the 3rd engine is seriously surfaced. Only worse on a V.

If you’re blowing LUs already it might get more reliable due to less load

If you were starting scratch I’d want 2x merc v10 400s or Yamaha 450s. They’re designed to push heavy boats as they have big beefy LUs.

we have two 42 passenger boats with 18 degree hulls for moving people 1;45 trip to and from my island hotel daily. We bought two pairs of 300s from the narcos. They only use a pair of engines for 1 run apprx 220 hours. We get the engines for about half of what a new set sells for. We just got a sweet deal on five 300 engines minus lower units for 8k a piece. We run Yamaha 300s we run at 4400rpm which nets us 29-30mph. They have 2k hours on the oldest boat. A buddy running the same set up has almost 4K hours on his Yamaha 300s. My personal boat is a manta 32cc with an Armstrong bracket. Importing boats to Colombia is almost impossible to get them legal. We are friends with a captain in the navy here that is getting my manta done after sitting 7 years. So bringing down another boat won’t happen as I don’t want to pay new boat money. I do have a rude 4L 300 v8 2t engine I might buy a new 21ft boat for and have my mid cut down to a 16” mid. Will have an investment house for sale in about two months when I sell that will look at what’s out there for new 21ft ers

32 Manta isnt the lightest boat out there. I don't think you are going to get 70 even with triple 300 yamahas. Dont get me wrong. Wonderfull engines but not exactly performance focused. Take it from someone that took off 3 300xs to go to two 350sci's.