What I still can never wrap my head around is the amazing "love affair" so many in the fishing game seem to have with outboard powered vessels, whether center consoles or pilot house designs. I never understood why folks would want to sacrifice practically all of their fishing space off the stern with those giant propulsion plants blocking your way. IMHO once you add a bracket mounted system with a full transom you have essentially negated any simple way to fish off of your stern.
Can't wait to hear from all the outboard lovers about how wrong I am!!
Wow someone got a bug in his bonnet this AM, that being myself, but I've got to rant...
I'll take "Friend of the Court" position Captain Mike, that of someone who's locked into low 20' boats with the necessity of outboard propulsion, due to the fact that the boat will lie on mud a few low tides a month. Please don't even suggest an I/O which is, without a doubt, the worst of both the Inboard and Outboard worlds...
The worse sin that caused loss of fishing space on outboard vessels was the "European Transom" that popped up in the 90s. I not so fondly refer to this abomination as the "Eurotrashsom", a sad loss of fishing space. I have one of the almost extinct boat design with a cockpit that goes all the way to a non-welled transom with a single engine bolted on. Besides the space advantages, which are paramount, it also allows use of the "Transom Head" for those of us endowed with "outboard plumbing" of non-epic dimensions and drink a few coffees before heading out in the AM...
Here's another thing that I thought I'd never say, and that is I "miss" the walk through cabin design. This has been the stalwart design of the family boat for years, Dad's fishing boat and Mom's Sunday Cruise vessel. I have no use for it, but now that it's gone, the Nobel Laureates that design boats have morphed the classic CC design into the family boat to fill the vacuum. There's nothing wrong with that, but now on many CCs they've taken away the bow casting platform, a paramount need on a CC IMO, and replaced it with built-in thwart lounge chaises for Mom!! WTF? Add in a Eurotrashsom and you've now taken a fine, roomy fishing vessel with a worthless party barge!!
Couldn't agree more with you on the new fascination with multiple, huge engines bolted on a transom. As I mentioned somewhere above, there are a lot of our colleagues who must have some real need to compensate for them. From a practical sea conditions perspective, just how many days can one actually open all them engines up and let the ponies run without jarring loose dental work and making jelly out of our kidneys?? Seems like an awful waste of money to try to impress your friends. In my simplistic, frugal mind, the only reason for a maximum of DUAL engines is for those of us who routinely make offshore runs of more than 25 nm one way,
e.g. those who make frequent Canyon runs. Four engines to take SWAMBO out for a Sunday cruise? Seriously???
And then there are the operating costs. A good diesel does need proper maintenance, but the cost of doing it on a single engine compared to three or more of the new high tech outboards is miniscule. Will be interesting when these new boat owners, who probably got the 1st year's winterization bill covered in their purchase agreements, get their yard bills next year!! That "reality check", along with the reality check for first time boat owners due to COVID-19 impulse buying, should have the now-depleted used boat market explode come spring 2022.
Unfortunately, you couldn't even give me most of the impulse purchased boats, so I'll stick with my current one which suits me just fine, putting over 150 hrs on per year with only feeding her 200 - 225 gallons of gas, which I ferry in with Jerry jugs. Yeah, I can't get her over 28 kts., but then again, these old bones can no longer weather a high RPM jarring in anything less than glass-like surface conditions, and the mi$er in me $ee$ no rea$on for pu$hing the throttle pa$t 20 kt$. To each his own...
