Mercury's Racing Sterndrives

[yipster]

and still its not a common good. btw stunning old pics! i was at the europort and mets exibitions asking bout the various surface drives. prop walking was less than the vertical forge and sds should be (i've seen different) dual systems anyway i was told. interestingly the various vendors had slightly diffrent story's. if i can make it i'll attend a upcomming trimax meeting. found some more articles mentioning also spectaculair SDS results for slow and heavy boats, i'm reading

[tom kane]

There will always be different opinions and different uses of surface piercing prop systems.The market for small,medium,every day boaties has been forgotten.The real money is providing for commercial and wealthy section of people.When you start making a boat go realy fast however it is pushed,it starts to be a very bumpy ride,and new form of water transport is needed.

[marshmat]

I do like surface drives- I like the concept, the high-speed capabilities, and of course the killer rooster-tail. But I do have a few beefs with the things- dockside manoeuverability for one, and also the reported need for constant trim tweaking when at low planing speeds. I think the reason they're not seen much in the "small, medium every day boaties" crowd is mostly because of the skill needed to get the most out of them. Tweaking trim every 10 seconds might be fun for some, and worth the extra mph, but I think most of the every-day crowd would rather have smooth docking and easy driving. I think that's why we haven't seen surface drives in mainstream applications very much, despite their many benefits.

[tom kane]

If you have a surface propulsion drive that can be lowered down 20 degrees (subsurface drive) when docking,it is no problem because the drive has plenty of thrust,forward,reverse and port and starboard.The thrust does not push against the transom.Twin rudders that are trimable up and down and fold flat against the prop thrust complete a good unit similar to a Kitchen rudder.There should be no need to constantly trim the drive while underway.if the drive is designed to find it`s own setting,that is floating in it`s own slipstream.I have been using such a drive for years and it is simplicity to operate.Just launch your boat and the drive looks after it`s self,even if you go aground it just slide up out of harms way.