That's right, Peter started out with the outboard skaters, manufactured and perfected them for years

Good thread. Weight/COG are everything; rope and pulleys are for sailboats.

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...24787854-2.jpg

Jayboat took a pic of a 30 or 32? triple outboard at Havasu this year. Anyone know how it runs? There is a 308 with 300x which was for sale, add said 112..is that lagit?

http://www.offshoreonly.com/classifi...o56457-en.html

I know the outboard cats don't put big numbers up BUT we can run 75-80 all day long and not stop at every marina for gas LOL.
I would think a 400 hp factory backed outboard would be a big seller not just for the performance cats but the CC market too, which is huge if you figure in all the fishing CC's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB30DtZqre4 Ck out this link of a 32' Wide Body with triples. Definitely getting with the show. Boat started out as twin engine. Peter does not like building triples but this thing is bad a$$ and low maintainence.
I would think a 30' Skater with triples would run in the mid 120's.

what is Mercury using as the base for the 400? is it off the LS or something completely new?

why does he not like triples? I'm sure the third engine is restrictive for the tunnel in some way. David...what did peter say about your build? did he share any thoughts and ideas on getting it dialed in?

Several years ago I asked Peter to price a 36 and 32 Skater quad outboard for me. Chis declined and said that due to the potential for transom problems from running in rough seas at higher speeds they didn't want to go there.
However Jay Pelini was interested in building me a 36 poker run edition with quads. I remember it was actually a very tempting, but with 3 daughters and a lot of other stuff life got in the way of going through with it.
When I finally wound up with the 36 skater triple. I talked to Peter extensively about it.
At first he said "why do you want to do that"? and he added "you should call Paul who at the time had owned the 32B with the quads and see what he says".
Well I did, and he was not very enthusiastic about it and mentioned things like poor cruising characteristics and loud high revving howling emanating from it while trying to cruise the ICW in Florida
He ended up removing the quad 2.5s and rerigging with twin 300xs and then eventually selling to I believe flightclub. I was able to buy a few steering parts from the quad set up and use them on my skater.
After discussing with Peter further, he starting liking the idea for the additional engine. He said " that big 36 could use the extra power".
Long story short, he was right, the 36 is a lot bigger and bow heavy compared to even the 32b. Remember it is 99.9 percent of them go out the door with big heavy inboard power. So adding the extra weight of another 2.5 to the transom, probably helped.
Running it last summer, it handled and cruised beyond my expectations.
As far as dialing in, I'm just going to see where it can ultimately go with the top end

I do not think we will see a 400hp Mercury outboard that work in our application anytime soon. I know the are working on something for CC market which is huge but the weight of the motor will not make it practical for a small cat. According to people I have spoke with the 300x platform was a true racing motor that was destined for 400hp at some point but EPA regulations killed it. Then came the 300xs. The compressor alone eats up about 20hp according to DBR.
Regarding the boat in the classifieds it belongs to a good friend of mine. He was the owner/throttleman for the Mobil 1 28' Skaters. Won a bunch of races and championships in his day. We all grew up together in S. FL racing/running offshore on the weekends. I have rigged both 28 race boats he had along with a 24 that he got as his first boat. He would not post something that was not true. I believe the boat ran 112mph. May not be a real world everyday number but if it ran 112 it would easily run 108 or so on any given day.

That is discussed somewhere here on Oso, I believe it is based on the Verado

Seeing the cable pulley steering reminded me of my earlier boating days when I had a 20 ft Allison River race drag boat with a mariner 2.5 260 SS.
Cable steering is quite common on SINGLE engine race boats. Wheel feedback is optimized and component inspection is easy with much of it exposed.