Mercury 600 HP Outboard with lower unit steering

Mercury Marine has announced a 600 horsepower V12 outboard with some inovations. Steering is by the lower unit / gearcase piviot, not the entire engine. It has a two-speed transmission with shifting controlled by the engine controller, and a "hood" which opens for engine checks and servicing without removing the entire cowl.

Article with infomation: Mercury Unveils Innovative 600-hp Verado Outboard, Its Largest Ever https://www.soundingsonline.com/features/mercury-unveils-innovative-600-hp-verado-outboard-its-largest-ever

Marketing material: 600 horsepower V12 Verado | Mercury Marine https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/v12/

Video with little technical information

 

That beast is certainly a very impressive machine indeed.
However it looks fiendishly complicated to me, with so much to potentially go wrong?

I love the bit at the end where they say it will be available with a 20" standard leg 'for the pontoon boat owners who want to rule the lake'. Ha!

 

Own the lake...
On the other hand, I do have a 20" transom. I think I'll give my piggy bank a rattle. See what falls out.

 

Pure armchair thinking from a guy who'll never own one here, but I'm imagining two of these on the back of some of those Florida mega-CC catamarans being a killer combination.

 

Go on John, that would be ideal for your Sea Sled.

Although you might also need a retractable bow thruster now as you will only have one engine.....

 

I'm surprised there's such a small spread between first and second gear. Is the powerband on the V12 so very narrow? If so, why not a 3 speed? ZF makes an 8 speed for cars with engines tuned perfectly for incredible power and efficiency, with the inevitable tradeoff of a very narrow powerband. A 3 speed would be trivial for them.

 

Hmm. Excellent point. I'd better budget for 2.

 

I've pulled wrenches on a lot of things. It seems the later design it is, the harder it is to work on. I wonder it would be like, changing spark plugs, or maybe a head gasket on that thing. Just no space for my paws in there.

 

I'm using a basic prop calculator, just for a starting point. It tells me I want 19" pitch props fuelled, but otherwise empty, and 11" props fully loaded. The 2 speed transmission looks pretty good from here.

 

Wonder is Volvo Penta shutting down Seven production in November 2020 after only 9 months was due to seeing this coming? Mercury's Verado V12 had to be at least partially inspired by Seven, especially with Seven having its origins from Rick Davis. The history of very large outboards is approaching a retelling of the history of the stern drive story (invented at Mercury, launched by Volvo Penta, then Mercury follows). This Soundings article tells some of the history of Seven. Power Couple https://www.soundingsonline.com/news/power-couple

 

I think making a shifter that takes the continuous load of pushing water is not as easy as it sounds. Up until recently zf had a hard time keeping up with twin disc in single speed gears in the reliability standpoint. Twin disc had two speed quickshif transmissions for inboard applications, never really caught on. Guess it was a price related issue, my application would be perfect for them but in my power rating they were 50k+ and the zf I bought was 17k..... so a tough sell for a "maybe".

 

Get two!
Problem solved.

1260 pounds, dry, lightest model available!

 

Brunswick showed a planetary transmission on an outboard in a patent issued in late 2018. US Patent 10,161,482.
US10161482B1 - Planetary transmission arrangements for marine propulsion devices - Google Patents https://patents.google.com/patent/US10161482B1/en?oq=us10161482 That patent reviews numerous other marine transmissions.

 

The cost/benefit analysis seems to suffer from crippling preconceptions. I can buy a 3 speed automatic that can handle 500 hp, 500 foot pounds of torque for 1500 bucks. It's called a TH400. The downside? It's a transmission meant for automotive applications. No internal thrust bearing. Oh nos! What to do? If only someone had invented a self aligning thrust bearing... But no such thing exists. So the only choice is a marine transmission at 30 times the cost, that only offers 1 speed, and forces the designer into prop compromises that are sad.

Maybe that TH400 would only last a quarter as long, but at the price difference and huge fuel savings, rebuilding it once a year is still a smart economic move.

 

1300 pounds plus, $100K CAD, each.

I like the stationary power head for in-deck mounting.