Mercury inflatable question

[Peter_C]

With a 14' boat I can not imagine having less than 40HP. My Zodiac barely planes with 4 divers and gear with a 2 stroke 40.

 

[lolarent]

A friend and I bought the 14' Mercury HD 430 (not the hypalon, the PVC model). It comes with marine wood floorboards, so not the aluminum floors. We have a 25 HP Mercury motor, 2 stroke.

In the beginning, the thing wouldn't move. It would bring us to where we want, but it had no speed. We couldn't get the boat to plane, except if there were only 1 person and no gear in the boat. Then it would plane really nice and go fast.

We then changed the prop from a 13 pitch to an 11 pitch. What a world of difference! We haven't tried filling the boat with divers and gear yet, but we know with 2 divers and gear, it planes without problems. We clocked the speed with GPS, and reached about 32 km/h.

I would say that this boat fits about 4 divers with gear - no more. We are going to take it out hopefully soon with 4 divers (and gear), and I am curious to see if it still planes. I'll report back if people are interested.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Has anyone owned/used one of the newer Mercury HD hypalon boats? I'm not refering to the Quicksiver line that Mercury used to distribute, but the newer red Hypalon 14' with the Aluminum floor.

Im currently in the market for another inflatable and wondering how they compare to others such as the Achilles. I can get a much better deal on the Merc @ 14' than an Achilles and the specs are pretty comparable, but I was curious to see if anyone had any experience with them and thoughts on durability/construction. Boat will be used for diving/exploring lakes and rivers.
Any thoughts or recommendations would be much appreciated.

How did you make out with your boat and motor?
I have had one of these merc. 14 footers for 9 years now and it has seen alot of use over the years. I have a 25 HP, 2 stroke merc and it runs like a champ. No problem with 2 divers and 4 tanks plus lots of gear. The only issue I have with the boat is the dain valve. To put it mildly it sucks. the plug will pop out when running on a plain and it lets water in faster then at drains but other then that it is a great boat. It is wide enough to put 5, 80s across the floor.
I use a short shaft motor and my buddie has one with a long shaft 35 and both work well.

ZDD

 

[Thunder Bay Minnow]

Friends of mine bought one of the Mercury's from Defender and put a 40hp Mercury on it and I am not too impressed. They had a similar size Zodiac with a 50hp and that thing would jump off the water and scoot! This one seems to hug the water and not really get up on plain. We go out together with me in my SeaRider and of course I can literally run circles around them, but the profile of the Merc verses the Zodiac are very noticeable in the water.