Ok gang this is an important question for me. I'm tooling up a liner / deck for a 28 CC . The main reason for the CC is to put the boat to work in my Sea Tow business. I/O's work well for towing and I can save some money over O/B's. The best price I've found on Yamaha 250 HPDI's are $ 12,000 each. What should I do go with a 496 HO set up or twin Yamahas? Your help is appreciated! BH

If you're planning to sell commercially, OB is the only way to go on a 28' CC. I'd definitely look at a 28' CC with O/B but would pass on an I/O in that kind of boat. My 2 cents...

Absolutely O/Bs and twins for dependability. If you're towin' you don't wanna get towed too

Twin Yammy!

If it's a work boat go diesel. If you want to sell to the publc go twin OB's

I know I'm not even remotely considering IO's in my cc hunting.

-Greg

If your useing this in a sea tow business I would go for I/O with a yanmar deisel. Low end grunt for towing I was given a tow by a friend of mine who has twin big johnson's (V-8 innovations....fast) Being a 2 stroke I don't think the low RPM would be good for it. And besides the fumes will kill the people you are towing in

Hey wait a minute...are these weedwhackers 2 or 4 stroke? (not up on those O/B's)

Outboards all the way.
And I would opt for the 'Rudes long before the Yammies.
The new ones are virtually indestructible. Bombardier engineering group did a tremendous job of curing all the ills of the Ficht engine.
The new 2-stroke direct injected engines smoke very little if at all- you certainly can't tell that it's a 2-stroke any more when you're following them whether it's Opti, Yamaha HPDI, or Rude.
I'm waiting to see how the new E-Tecs will measure up when they come out next year.

Are the outboards that much more reliable? What other benefits? Fuel mileage?

I put 340 hours on my Yamaha 150 hpdi last year towing. Not a fouled plug - always cranks and never smokes. I guess I'm leaning towards the OB's now. Man I could just see a I/O running 70 plus mph(save$$$) and the rumble. I'm still undecided - keep em coming . BH

I would go with OB's for the application. I would prefer the use of a US based manufacturers units rather than something from offshore, so I did not vote.