New Yamaha F70

Has anybody had any experience with the new Yamaha F-70 four stroke with single overhead cam? I love the power to weight and the fact that it is a four stroke. I'm thinking of repowering my 22-2 aquasport with a set of twins, but was wondering if they have any kind of a track record yet.

Thanks in advance.

Re: New Yamaha F70

The F70 is a fine engine, and it's essentially the same engine as the 50 and 60 horsepower motors with different ECU programming and a slight change in the air intake.

I'm a fan of the 75 hp Yamaha, as it has substantially more cubic inches. If your boat is very heavy, torque is king. The cost difference is about $1K each.

If your boat has been running with a single engine, a large modern single outboard is preferable over repowering with twins on most boats.

Re: New Yamaha F70

My boat is a 1987 center console with a transom cut out for 20" shaft engines. It's set up for twins with two rigging tubes, two fuel ports, and a wide cutout to accommodate the twins.

I troll a lot off shore on Lake Erie. I like the idea of putting half the hours on the engines by running one at a time trolling. I also like the security of having a backup engine all the time. The reason I have a single screw right now is purely because it was all I could afford at the time I got the boat 17 years ago. The rig is underpowered now at half the rated HP (115 HP on a 230 rated boat), which is not the best scenario with a large following sea.

I have a weight issue with the current power I have weighing in at 315#. I don't want to be too heavy in the back and have water coming in thru the scuppers at rest, so I'm trying to keep it light. Right now, my choices seem to be between these 70 hp yammies, and a set of 90 HP E-techs. Unless I'm convinced to go with a large single and a kicker, but I'd need overwhelming reasons to change my mind at this point.

Any thoughts welcomed and thanks for the response!!

Re: New Yamaha F70

I like your "half the hours" logic but really think the two 70's would still be underpowered for my liking. The two 90 E-techs would get you close to 80% of rated horsepower while the two 70's falls below my personal (and shared by many) 70% of rated max. I'm sure there is a $ difference and probably fuel consumption differences as well but my personal view is the 90's would be a better fit.

Re: New Yamaha F70

My new boat has the F150 Yamaha, and I love it. That would be a good alternative for you--27 pounds less than twin F70's. Labor, hardware, batteries and props to hookup a single engine is substantially less than dual engines--possibly $1K-$2K less.

F70's are about $9K MSRP vs. $15K for a F150. You can realistically buy a new F150 for about $12.5K-$13K. That's cheaper than duals.

I also consider the new Mercury 150 hp FourStroke to be a very good value, as our local dealer is selling them (without controls or prop) for $10K--much less than the Yamaha F150. As far as I can tell, performance is about the same.

My hat's off to you for going so long on one boat hull. My old pontoon boat is perfectly good after my running it 27 years. You have some decisions to make.