OUTBOARDSOUTBOARDS
love their boat and wouldn’t trade, citing its easy
motion at all speeds and its fuel economy, which
proved the best of our three testers. Running
bow-proud at planing speeds of 16 to 25 mph,
Justifi ed showed us around 1.8 mpg. Trawler
speeds of 8 mph produced 4.5 mpg. Even at
wide-open throttle (33.6 mph), it achieved 1.3
mpg. The boat’s isolated and insulated engine
box kept sound to a minimum, and as the charts
show, noise levels were roughly comparable for
both power choices at a variety of speeds.
The unnamed 36 with Suzuki 300 engines is
Bill Judge’s personal boat, the fi rst
that he built with outboards. Three
years old, it had about 900 hours on
the motors when we tested it. This
boat is lighter, rigged primarily for
fi shing and day-cruising with an
open pilothouse. It ran noticeably
higher in the water, drier and fl atter,
with both Interceptors and engine
trim available to adjust running
attitude to fi t conditions. With two
16-inch-diameter propellers in the
water, it popped onto plane below
15 mph and fairly fl ew from there
all the way to 43.6 mph. Its “happy
speed,” according to
Judge, is 24 to 28 mph,
returning 1.5 to 1.6 mpg
(where the diesel boat netted 1.75 mpg), but it
also runs well at speeds in the midteens, where
we recorded 1.3 mpg versus 1.8 for the diesel
boat, an important alternative for fi shing on
gnarly days. Gone is the hyper effi ciency the
inboard posted while cruising at trawler speeds.OUTBOARD VERSUS INBOARD
As we began to dig into the pros and cons of the
two layouts, though, a broader picture emerged
of what it would mean to live with each system
over the long term. The fi rst is purchase price.IT RAN NOTICEABLY HIGHER IN THE WATER,
DRIER AND FLATTER, WITH BOTH INTERCEPTORS
AND ENGINE TRIM AVAILABLE TO ADJUST
RUNNING ATTITUDE TO FIT CONDITIONS.
Bill Judge uses his 36
Chesapeake with twin Suzuki
300 outbards primarily as a
fi shing boat.
·LOA: 36'0"·BEAM: 12'0"
·DRAFT: 2'5"·DEADRISE AFT: 4 degrees
·DISPLACEMENT: 12,500 lb.·FUEL: 240 gal.
·WATER: 30 gal.·MAX HORSEPOWER:^700
HOW WE TESTED
ENGINE: TWIN 300 HP SUZUKI OUT-
BOARDS ON AN ARMSTRONG TRANSOM
BRACKET PROP: 16" X 17" 3-BLADE
STAINLESS STEEL GEAR RATIO: 2.08:1
FUEL LOAD: 160 GAL. WATER LOAD:
30 GAL. CREW WEIGHT: 600 LB.High Points
Lower initial cost
Higher cruising and top speed
Huge open cockpit adaptable for
many uses
With proper maintenance, an engine
life of 3,000-plus hours
Ease of winterization, maintenance
and repairs
Zipwake trim system optimizes run-
ning angle for efficiency and comfort
Two engines provide redundancyLow Points
Lower fuel efficiency
Modestly lower service life
Harder to handle fish around transomSPEED EFFICIENCY OPERATION
rpm knots mph gph^ naut. mpg stat. mpg n. mi. range range s. mi. angle levelsound
600 4.17 4.80 0.50 8.34 9.60 1186 1365 0 60
900 5.82 6.70 1.00 5.82 6.70 828 953 0 63
1200 7.47 8.60 1.90 3.93 4.53 559 644 0 63
1500 8.60 9.90 3.40 2.53 2.91 360 414 2 65
1800 10.60 12.20 6.40 1.66 1.91 236 271 4 68
2100 14.16 16.30 8.60 1.65 1.90 234 270 4 69
2400 17.90 20.60 11.20 1.60 1.84 227 262 4 69
2700 21.38 24.60 14.00 1.53 1.76 217 250 5 69
3000 25.11 28.90 17.60 1.43 1.64 203 233 5 69
3300 28.24 32.50 23.40 1.21 1.39 172 198 5 69
3400 29.20 33.60 25.40 1.15 1.32 163 188 5 70
MOST ECONOMICAL CRUISING SPEEDSUZUKI 300s
Price: $289,000
(with test power)BOATINGMAG.COM | JANUARY 2018| 59