Guess what i saw today ??

[wsuwrhr]

20% seems to mercury's numbers
8% might make a sale though.
20% may be a deal killer.

[GunninGopher]

The Caltrans yard in Blythe has a boat with one of those on it. It is the only one I ever saw. I am a surveyor and this must have been around 1993 or so. The last time I saw it was parked right by the fence on the street if anyone ever wanted to check one out.
I parked my old boat in there right next to it for a few weeks one summer. We used to work that part of the state from San Diego so we'd stay the week when we had a lot of work. For those weeks we worked from 5am - 3:30pm and then we'd launch the boat (with my van) for a few hours to ski and hang out. We'd pull it about 9pm and do it over again!!
Oh to be 22 again!! These day's, I definitely would struggle to put in a 10 hour day surveying in the desert's summer heat and then go cruise the river for 5 hours.

[Trailer Park Casanova]

OK,,OK,, now I remember.
It was a big change year for outboards in several ways. I got stung, and set out to learn about my mistake.
I wasn't leaving the boatshow until I found a cure for my problem:
One year some of the outboard builders decided to lengthen their short shaft outboards.
They added 4" inches to the industry standard, left the long shaft outboard length alone with some makers adding an Xtra long shaft to their line.
This same year Yamaha introduced the jet outboard. Different considerations when using/mounting a jet outboard.
Several jet conversion kits for prop outboards on the market too. One was all nylon BTW.
So, the industry sponsored boat show skull sessions on proper selection and mounting of your outboard to your boat.
The BFD is that the Jesus nut, or the center of the prop shaft should line up with the bottom of the boat for proper operation. This will be a big problem on some boats with the introduction of the longer length outboard if the buyer is napping when he buys the motor.
The industry Rep giving the seminar mentioned some things different with the jet outboard, and now I think he mentioned an 18 % power loss compaired to prop, and to buy more HP to compensate.
Plus, the jet outboard is mounted differently than prop. The pump at the end of the shaft has to be in the correct position to work right.
Ya can't just replace your prop outboard, stick the key in the ignition and good to go. Ya gotta dial the mounting in.
The speaker went into other things.
Those Boat Show seminars were pretty good.
Ya got some industry movers and shakers up there to talk to the boating masses. You could learn stuff that you could really use.
I dunno if anyone remembers, but their used to be lots more outboard makers than ya see today.
I remember one company had the only air cooled 4 strokes on the market in a field saturated with water cooled 2 strokes.
Their was Elgin, Aqua Bug, Sea Gull, Chrysler, Nissan, Sheckelgroover, lots and lots of builders.
Even Honda introduced a 9 Hp four stroke with three shaft lengths!
Look where they've gone today.
The reason I ended up at the skull session is I had bought a 50 hp Yamaha, opened the box, and it was 4" longer than my boat was designed for.
The industry change bit me in the ass because I was napping.
It ran horrible. GGGessszze I was sick.
But, I bought a stainless adjustable motor mount from a family that has a booth at the boatshow (no internet shopping in those days, ya went to the boatshow for innovation) and it cured my problem, and I promptly sold the (bubbles style) boat.