Hello gang -
I figured I'd share my experiences on here as I go about repowering the new (to me) boat - a 1992, 210 WAC.
A quick bit of background. I purchased this boat with a good friend of mine. We are both big into spearfishing, and the effort required to bum a ride on another diver's boat was getting to be a bit too much. We were lucky enough to run into a fellow spearing guy who was in the market for something bigger, and the deal was done! He was pretty sad to see her go; swore it was the perfect dive boat but the family just needed more room now as the kids were older.
We knew right away that a new motor was going to be first order of business. She currently has a late 1990s Suzuki 200hp, V6 2-stroke powering her. I did a bunch of research - trying to figure out what engine to go with. Basically that means I lurked on this forum and read all I could find for a while
A huge shout out to Capt Bob, who gave me a ton of information.
So, the new engine is a 2018 Yamaha F200 LCA. Extremely excited to get her on the boat!
Before speaking with Capt Bob and my local Yamaha engine dealer, I was completely unaware that the F200 was nearly impossible to get ahold of (major shortage in supply), but I got extremely lucky. I had settled on the F150, and when the dealer called Yamaha to place the order, he asked for an estimate on the next availability for the F200. Surprisingly the agent on the phone told him that a single F200 popped up as available on the inventory that morning. It was literally the only one available in North America. So yeah, I snatched that puppy up.
As always, gotta keep things interesting - so here are the challenges ahead:
1. The new F200 has a 20" shaft. That's not quite long enough for the 21 WAC. For whatever reason, the PO must have run into the same thing with his Suzuki because the boat has a jack plate on the stern which lowers the engine. Check it out:
This fixes the shaft length problem, but as you can see, you can no longer tilt the engine fully up to pull it out of the water. Not ideal, even if we do store the boat dry.
So, I'm pulling off the old jack plate and installing a new T-H Marine Atlas Hydraulic Jack Plate. This way, we can make sure the F200 sits at the right level in the water and it we can raise the jack plate and maintain full tilt function.
2. Weight - so Suzuki comes in at around 465 lbs, and the Yamaha around 487 lbs. So not a huge difference. But, just to help the situation out I'm going to reposition the batteries from the stern to some yet to be determined position more towards the bow.
So, we'll see how this all goes. I'm excited to see the work kick off. Hoping to get it all started in the next week or two. Oh! I almost forgot that the digital controls. Going with the Yamaha 6YC Command Link Gauge. Excited to go to electronic controls and also clean up the dash a bit.
Well, I'll update this as we make progress. Cheers!
