![]() The fact is, that if you had a 20 foot boat with a different drive system, an 18 foot boat with an outboard would feel very similar in size from the standpoint of usable floor space. When you consider how much floor space is lost to other boat drive systems, an outboard looks pretty attractive. Not only that, but you have the ability to remove the entire drive system off the boat and bring it into the shop, either for repair or climate controlled storage. In comparison to other boat drive systems, having the ability to have full unobstructed access to the entire engine, is a huge advantage. It’s a compact “all – in – one” boat drive system.Easily winterized for cold weather storage.Can be trimmed up and out of the water for shallow water conditions.It doesn’t take up any of the boat’s interior space.Relatively easy to remove from the boat for storage, repair, or replacement.Easy access to doing repairs or maintenance.Some of the pro’s to owning an outboard powered boat are: It’s mounted directly onto the boat’s transom and only takes up space on the exterior of the boat. The outboard motor drive system is very widely used and has some great advantages when used for the right purpose. It’s great for a ski boat but not so much for family and friends leisure boating. A big disadvantage is that the engine and it’s cover take up a lot of room, right in the middle of your boat.You need a trailer that will not interfere with the drive. Not a terrible disadvantage, but trailering is more difficult for this same reason.The prop and shaft are in a fixed position. You can’t raise up your prop when you get into a shallow water situation.However, by design, most direct drive boats are more for water skiing because they can produce very little wake behind your boat.Ī couple disadvantages of this drive system is: As guests enter and exit the boat while in the water, it’s highly unlikely that get hurt on the prop. With the propeller tucked up under the boat, there’s very little risk when towing a wakesurfer or any other towable in close proximity to the back of the boat. Another advantage of having the weight centered is the nimble handling and stability of the boat. Rather than pushing from the rear of the boat like and I/O, outboard, or jet drive, the prop shaft transfers the trust up towards the center of the boat. The thrust is essentially all moving the boat in a forward direction from the center of the boat. You can tow several skiers out of the water at one time and not lift the bow of your boat. By keeping the weight of the engine centered in the boat (the engine actually sits a bit further forward than my image shows), there’s very little to no bow rise when accelerating. Not only is Ski Nautique one of the leading ski boats still today, but they opened up this design idea for many manufactures to enter the ski boat industry. It was also the world’s first tournament inboard ski boat. ![]() It was the first fiberglass ski boat, and was designed by Leo Bentz. Correct Craft released it’s first Ski Nautique boat in 1961. One of the more well known boat manufactures in the early days was Ski Nautique. The Inboard drive configuration has been the standard for ski boats for about 6 decades. There is very little loss of power from this design. The inboard drive system is often referred to as a Direct Drive system, because the propulsion is directly inline with the engine’s crankshaft. Inboards for our types of pleasure boats came much later. The first boats to utilize inboard motors, were actually steam engine powered, back in the early 1800s. Let’s take a look at each boat engine and drive configuration to understand how they work, and why they’re each designed that way. The most popular configuration is the I/O, but the reality is that each drive system has a specific advantage over the other. There are five main boat engine and drive systems. Knowing this helps in your quest for having the right boat for your needs. Boats have different types of drive systems, depending on the intended use of the boat.
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