im looking for a replacement drive for my bravos. what is a blackhawk drive? how much how can they take. will they fit onto a standard bravo trnasom assembly?

It's been a while but from what I recall reading in the literature about Blackhawks...

Yes, they will fit onto a bravo gimbal.

No idea how much they can handle.

They are hard to find these days because they are no longer produced and weren't produced for many years either. (I believe production ended in 1999.) Replacement parts are also hard to find should you manage to procure one and something breaks.

I don't remember the specifics, but the blackhawk drive had a substantially shorter gearcase than the bravo (higher X dimension) and had two props per drive (counter rotational).

The bravo has something like a few hundred pounds of drag and a certain amount of downforce at 60mph. The blackhawk had less than 100 pounds of drag and "?" pounds of lift at the same speed.

The blackhawk worked best on fairly small hulls that naturally had a fair amount of bowlift. Aside from speed gains, supposedly it provided racecar tight handling as well.

I guess the drive was intended for relatively small boats, but I remember reading in hot boat that they supposedly took a triple engine 42' Fountain, swapped the bravos for blackhawks, and gained something like 10 mph.

For what it's worth, that's as much as I can remember. I'm sure someone else on here has some more detailed information on the subject.

If you are seriously considering blackhawks, i would recomend you call this man...Gary Meisenberg Sr. Gary was the mastermind behind the balckhawk and can tell everything you need to know, including weather or not it would be a good fit for your boat. I worked for Gary for about 1 year, and am still in touch with him. He runs Oshkosh Marine Center in Oshkosh Wisconsin and can be reached at 1-920-236-4220 anytime during the week..Tell him Andrew told you to call........there isnt a single person that can tell you more about the drive period. good luck - Andrew

Ok...now I gotta know. I go to OMC on occasion and know most of the guys there by face, but many not by name. Who are you Andrew? Chances are that we've met...

I'll make it short MERC DROP THEM after 2yrs I think to many problemswith them,parts wii be hard to find.

Cord

My name is Andrew Verwey, i worked for Rod at Performace for about 2 years, im only 21 and was by no means a super tech but did learn a lot form everyone there. It is possible we have met, do you have a boat that has been by us?? I have a very good memory when it comes to the boats we have serived and rigged. I am no longer an employee there but i do stay in the loop as i live in town and still talk to Rod, Gary, and Pete on a regular basis...

AIRTIME

it is true merc stop production of the blackhawk after a very short run. I could be mistaken but most of the internals are strait out of a bravo 3, the gearcase itself is the hard part to find...and props....

Here's a pic..... This is on a 31 Sonic that i was looking at. Board member ST31 bought this boat.

Ill-yes, I bought Gary's catamaran. Not, the red Talon (although, I'd love to own that boat) but the pumple Firehawk.

I wonder what it would be like to take a Black Hawk and convert it to a single prop or maybe even a speedmaster prop. Now you have a drive with a higher X dimension or a surface drive........