Everybody's Gone Surfing...Part Deux (marine sterndrive technology)

[AsLan7]

.
A fascinating crossroad took place in the Marine industry a few years back with GM's (apparent) announcement about discontinuing the manufacture of blocks that VP & Mercury use as the basis for their marinized engines. Thus, two different philosophy's have emerged since then starting in 2014 when Mercury Marine announced it would produce a block of it's own design for it's Mercruiser engines.

Volvo went in the other direction, and began basing its designs on newer-generation, Gen V, GM blocks.

ENTER...wake surfing. With the wake surf craze catching on, there was a desire to be able to surf behind i/o boats....Sooooo, in 2015, Volvo Penta changed the rules. With an eye on the burgeoning surf crowd, VP took a cue from its successful IPS pod drive and put the prop in front of a sterndrive’s lower unit.

volvo-penta-forward-drive.jpg

.
Mercury decided to go in the other direction --concentrating on catching the craze with it's inboard partners and its development of inboard blocks.

Mercruiser-62.jpg

.

IMHO, I think Merc underestimated the demand for surfing behind i/o boats. The next few years will be interesting. I'm a Merc fan thru & thru. However, I think they are "behind the power curve" already when it comes to the new 6.2L I/O architecture that Volvo Penta is offering as well as VP's forward drive technology.

One things for sure...if someone is wake surfing behind an I/O today, it's not a Merc....it's a VP product. Time will tell if this will change.

In any event, here is an article by Boat US written in 2015 which captures the decision by VP & Merc to go in different directions.

https://www.boatus.com/magazine/2015/au ... drives.asp

Chime in!

.

[thunder550]

Great article! I'm a big fan of GM's late model V8 engines, interesting that Volvo decided to go that route while Mercury decided to go out on their own. I hope for success on both sides, but this decision would make me lean towards a VP in a newer boat, where I've always been a Merc fan in the past.

[tgrace98]

I've always been a Mercury guy myself. Last 3 boats I have owned have all been Mercruisers and didn't have any major problems with any of them despite them being 15-20 year old boats at the time of ownership. I always liked the fact that they used GM motors and I've owned several GM cars so was familiar with the motors. That being said when I found the Cobalt that I bought I will admit at first I almost didn't go look at it because it had the VP motor. Did my research and once I found it was the same GM block and that the out-drive seemed to be stronger than the bravo series I went ahead and looked at it. Drove it and fell in love. However now knowing that Mercury has developed its own block I think I would steer away from them for awhile until I can see how they hold up and would go with a VP motor.

[AsLan7]

I’ll be interested to see if Merc follows VP’s IPS evolution lead by adapting it’s Zeus drive in a similar fashion. Currently no plans on the table for that.

For those who want an even more in depth look at the recent history and future of marine propulsion, this article expands on it...
.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.boatsand ... elope/amp/

.

[Tuscany]

I hold no brand loyalties. So, I’m not pumping one over the other because I fly a particular flag. I could really care less, other than being objective here.

For me, it’s strictly “what have you done for me lately” when purchasing “new” stern drive technology.
380/430 VP vs. the B.B.. 300 less weight, one second push button winterizing, closed cooling, better fuel economy, crazy engine response, awesome warranty, and now the 380/430 based on the Gen 5, 6.2 DI aluminum block that will out perform the competition in side by side performance down the entire line up of engine choices.
I understand some curl up to “proven” like a warm blanket. I get it, but don’t buy into it.
Unless the lights go back on at Merc Stern drive central, they seem to not be interested in a forward drive or surf boat sales.

Currently, It seems obvious to me that Merc could care less about stern drive power, and has concentrated on developing the best outboards, which may be the smartest/savviest and most shrewd move of all.

[MnLakeBum]

I totally agree that Merc currently seems uninterested in stern drive power. The the 6.2L VP forward drive on my R5 Surf has great performance and allows me to have my cake and eat it too. It’s a great surf/watersports boat that I also can take in rougher water or make a 50mph run up the lake just for the fun of it!

I’ve always been a big fan of Mercury(and have a 350 Verado on our Marker One M27) but they have fallen behind VP in the stern driver category.