Early in 2020 I repowered my 2002 282 Sailfish with two Mercury 250HP Four Strokes. Unbelievable balance and power with these engines. With the 282 out of the water I also completed a complete refurbish, installed fuel filter water alarms, electric steering, digital throttle, wet sand/cut/polish of the hull, new Grady White decals, added a 3D sonar to the existing gadgets and upgraded the power electrics (mains, earth, busbars and circuit breakers and batteries) to sort our power problems I have had ever since adding my 2D sonar to the boat a decade ago. The boat has come up like new and after 60 hours use on these new engines and upgraded electrics I can say with certainty that I am very happy with the outcome.
I was impressed by Yamaha and I was almost convinced to go with Suzuki by my local mechanic who loves them, but I went Mercury V8.
Why did I go Mercury V8? I looked at all the other 4 Stroke engines on the market and they added substantial weight down the back of the boat. The Mercury 250HP V8 Four Stroke's are almost identical weight to the Yamaha 200HP HPDI 2 Stroke's that have been replaced. Equivalent Yamahas would have added over 350lbs to the back of my boat and the scuppers were at water level as they were, so more weight would have led to potential scupper problems and water in my boat especially with a few people fighting a fish down the back. The later model 282's had their scuppers raised by 1.5 inches to overcome the weight of new 4 stroke engines at that time, but these Merc V8's nearly 20 years later are as light as the original GW spec 2 strokes. Very pleased.
A lesson with the upgrade is that adding lots of modern gadgets to a basic old boat eventually overloads the amps drawn thru the old power system and the batteries simply overload and most of the problem is too small cables and circuit breakers heating up, replace these and all is fixed.
I was impressed by Yamaha and I was almost convinced to go with Suzuki by my local mechanic who loves them, but I went Mercury V8.
Why did I go Mercury V8? I looked at all the other 4 Stroke engines on the market and they added substantial weight down the back of the boat. The Mercury 250HP V8 Four Stroke's are almost identical weight to the Yamaha 200HP HPDI 2 Stroke's that have been replaced. Equivalent Yamahas would have added over 350lbs to the back of my boat and the scuppers were at water level as they were, so more weight would have led to potential scupper problems and water in my boat especially with a few people fighting a fish down the back. The later model 282's had their scuppers raised by 1.5 inches to overcome the weight of new 4 stroke engines at that time, but these Merc V8's nearly 20 years later are as light as the original GW spec 2 strokes. Very pleased.
A lesson with the upgrade is that adding lots of modern gadgets to a basic old boat eventually overloads the amps drawn thru the old power system and the batteries simply overload and most of the problem is too small cables and circuit breakers heating up, replace these and all is fixed.
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