davidwademarine

Thanks everyone. It’ll be our first night in NYC and my wife wants to see some sights so we’ll try to at least catch the 2nd half at Legends. If you’re there tonight, I’ll be the one who looks the most out of place in NYC.

You need to be doing A LOT of anchoring for the pros of a windlass to outweigh the cons. As someone who has to handle many different boats for my job, the biggest issue that I have with a windlass is getting boats on and off of the trailer. They almost always interfere with the bow stop and winch. I always have to deploy the anchor some and set it in the boat before coming off or on the trailer. This is especially no fun when I’m doing it single-handedly. Don’t get me started on replacing the motors or solenoids.

Going with a spot lock trolling motor or a virtual anchor option like Optimus SeaStation, Mercury’s Joystick Piloting or Yamaha’s version would be a much better choice. Look up Sea Swivel if you’re going with a trolling motor. It does a great job of getting the motor out of harm’s way. Don’t sleep on a joystick/virtual anchor setup if you have the funds. They hold much better than a trolling motor and there’s nothing extra on the bow to fight fish around. We have installed and maintained plenty of them since Mercury released their version over a decade ago and becoming an Optimus certified installer. Contrary to popular belief, lower unit problems are no worse with joystick boats than those without. This is assuming that you stay on top of maintenance. That can’t be said for everyone though, joystick or not. The maintenance schedules are no different than a non-joystick application.

If you need an anchor for the sandbars and absolutely dread retrieving one, get an anchor lift buoy setup. They work very well.

If you’d like any more advice on this subject or any others on your upcoming build, look us up on Instagram or Facebook and send me a message. Great choice on SeaVee. They’re one of maybe 3 mono-hull brands that I’d spend money on if I were in the market.

High performance sterndrive/inboard initial costs as well as maintenance and repairs have never been cheap. They weren’t necessarily known to be reliable either. I can’t count how many I’ve seen barely get beyond the dock, if they even made it that far, without a catastrophic failure. Warranties were few and far between until Mercury released the QC4V lineup around 2010. Those engine/transom/drive packages are well over $100k (per side) but you do get a 1-2 year warrantable engine that produces 1100-1350+ horsepower on regular pump gas. Rebuilds at around 250 hours are upwards of $45k but your warranty period resets. What Mercury accomplished with those engines is nothing short of amazing if you spent any time in the industry beforehand. It’s not uncommon for properly maintained QC4Vs to go one or more seasons without any major problems. Gotta pay to play though. A lot. As someone who has spent more than half their life wrenching on boats, they’re not fun to work on either and knowledgeable dealers/technicians are harder to find than reliable engines.

Insurance costs have skyrocketed over the last 2 decades. Policies on some can run upwards of $30k per year, if you can even get insurance. Comes with the territory though when anyone with enough cash, or financing, can buy and operate a boat capable of 160+ MPH without any training whatsoever. Plenty of high-profile crashes have given them a bad rap, and for good reason. Honestly, most high-performance boat owners shouldn’t even be operating a canoe.

Most boat manufacturers saw the writing on the wall with the advancement and increasing reliability of four stroke outboards and adjusted their model lineups. This really took off in the early 2000’s with Mercury’s release of the Verado. Since then outboards have become lighter and more powerful with available warranty periods of up to 8 years on some brands. Maintenance and repair costs are a fraction of their sterndrive/inboard counterparts, not to mention their original purchase price. It’s not uncommon these days for modern outboards to easily eclipse the 1000+ hour mark in a recreational application with proper maintenance and without any major problems. Commercial applications can push 5000+ hours with ease and some are going over 10k+ hours.

Add all of that together and you are watching the very slow death of the high-performance sterndrive/inboard boat industry. It’s to a point now that you damn near have to be self insured and pay for everything out of pocket if you want to be in that world. Insurance costs and lack of financing are slowly putting the final nails in the coffin. It’s been heartbreaking to witness but necessity has driven major innovation. Hard to complain when they’re backing in boats to maintain with 5 or more outboards strapped to the transom and I don’t have to bend over backwards while standing on my head most of the day fixing a sterndrive.

We repowered this Venture 34 from Cocodrie last year with a pair of Mercury Racing 300Rs and updated the electronics with Simrad. It was previously powered by a pair of Mercury Racing 300XS Optimax, so this was a complete re-rig from engine controls/rigging to steering. We also modified the console to fit the dual 12” Simrad’s. Contact our office (225-752-3789) if you’d like info on engine pricing and availability. Plenty of other projects and pictures to browse on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

Can you elaborate on this? I handle all of our social media and I will never take credit for anyone else’s work. We’ve been the victim of this countless times over my 20 year career at DWM. I have no problems with sharing pictures of a few of the boats that come through our shop for others to enjoy. That may include a boat builder’s impressive work but will never take credit for it if it’s not done by our hands. Take the time to read photo descriptions and don’t assume what you don’t know.

I feel a little of your pain. I am completely rigging a 40 Razor this winter with quad Mercury V8 300Rs. Three 19” Simrads, Optimus 360, CZone, over the top JL stereo, and a whole lot more. That job will fall in between repowering a Yamaha powered Freeman with quad Mercury V8s before Christmas and another complete rigging job on an Empire with quad Mercury 400Rs starting in 2022.

Many items are on backorder. It’s with just about all marine industry brands, not just Mercury. Some dealers are just using the excuse to drag their feet. We have fixed quite a few boats lately that the owners were told it would be weeks or months before their previous dealer could get parts or get the job completed in a timely manner. This will be an interesting summer.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the Yamaha 300 have severe problems with lower units and flywheels?

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The 350 Yamaha has flywheel problems that they have never been able to resolve to this day. That’s been over 10 years.

Most charter companies keep several spare Yamaha lowers. 600 hours and the seals are toast. Most never get changed and blow after ingesting water.

Best time? The next 30 or so days for the best shot at big fish.

Guides? I’d recommend any one of our customers:
- Southern Catch
- Voodoo
- Mexican Gulf
- Intensity Offshore.

If you decide to make it down to Venice, look up Capt. John Cole with Southern Catch Outfitters. His new boat should be ready soon and he’s also going to be running a second boat this year.

If John’s booked, you can’t go wrong with MGFC, Voodoo, Intensity Offshore, Louisiana Bluewater, or any of the other charter companies running out of Venice.