Are you implying that Mercury would manipulate the market supply to customers that were not exclusive to Mercury?

I would say they would take care of loyal longtime customers first and do their very best to make sure the others are as happy as they could make them. It may be a supply and demand issue or just the new rear tie bar setup how knows but they should at the least keep him/skater advised LOL...I know exactly how that works, when supply is low and demand is high life for the supplier gets stressful LOL. but I will restate the fact that I really think this build would help Mercury out on these 400's if the performance numbers are good..JMO though.

I agree with the IO department but as far as outboards for the last 30 years smaller skaters have predominately used merc outboards. I think the tie bar issue has got to be the hold up in this case.

Sorry guys but as much as we love Skaters only a handful of them get built each year and even fewer are outboard powered. If I'm Mr CEO/CFO I'm going to want to sell motors. That means building them for the guys that build and sell boats. The CC market is exploding and on their rigs they typically use twice the motors on one of them that we do on our little go fast.

Hate to say it and rain on the parade but Mercury blows sometimes. Zero has been waiting for a gearcase for 6 weeks. I have seen many CC's down here with motors. There is a DW being done right now and Latham is finishing a tie bar set up for it. I would take Bob's set up over a mercury version any day.

Need to make sure you 2016 Skater at this point. I personally could not have wasted all summer with that thing sitting there! Buy some 300xs's and go boating. Let them work out the bugs of the 400r and watch the price drop and warranty go up by next year and install them then.
JMO.

Good Luck

Ron when did you get so wise and smart??

Merc blows PERIOD!!!!! They wanted $45.00 for and o-ring seal for VOS tank. I threw the VOS tanks away and simplified the fuel system. Zero problems since mods.The only parts in my Merc blocks are the crank and connecting rods. Aftermarket support for the 2.5 has been awesome in my 15 years of performance boat ownership.

Well Boys we're starting to like Mercury again. They answered my prayers. Got word today that they would have my motors to Skater by the end of July. Thank you to them for giving me a time frame and making it reasonable. I hope they come thru on their word. Interior should be done in a couple weeks now that they know the motors are kind of on the way. Thanx to Tony at Skater for calling them constantly and not letting them off the hook. Yay. Im happy again.

Awesome to hear and it sounds like perfect timing with the interior. The stars aligned, happy 4th!

From my experience,. "The squeeky wheel gets the grease"
Congratulations, it'll all be worth it in the long run