Browsing: Mercury outboards

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Grumpy Completes Great Loop, with Some Lessons for Us All

Mission accomplished. John Hauck, 80, a retired Army special forces major and helicopter pilot, just finished the Great Loop, arriving back home in Demopolis, Alabama, 110 days and 6,303 miles after he left. He put 416 hours on the twin 150-hp Mercury outboards that drove Grumpy, his RF-246 Rosborough, and said they “performed flawlessly.” Hauck did the Loop solo, except for 21 days when a lady friend joined him, from the Erie Canal to Ludington, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. He says if he does the Loop again, it would be nice to have company onboard. Hauck’s journey was a major…

Cruising Life
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Mercury Racing Launches New 450-hp Outboards; More Power, More Torque, Less Weight

Mercury Racing just upped the ante in the high-performance outboard engine game, introducing a 450-hp supercharged beast with what it says is the best power-to-weight ratio in the industry. Indeed, the new 450R weighs just 698 pounds, about the same as Merc’s formerly most-powerful 400-hp outboard, and several hundred pounds less than the competition, according to Mercury. “It’s raw performance in a premiere package,” says Stuart Halley, the general manager of Mercury Marine. Outboards are an increasingly popular power choice in a wide variety of boats. Even such traditional Down East builders as Hinckley, Sabre, Wilbur and MJM are building…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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John Hauck, 80, Starts a New Adventure, Alone, on Grumpy

Even at 80, John Hauck is looking for new challenges. “I like adventure,” he told me. “I’ve been an adventurous individual my whole life.” Hauck’s latest adventure is to take on the Great Loop, by himself (“All my adventures have been solo,” he said) on his 2003 Rosborough RF-246 Grumpy with twin 150-hp Mercury outboards. He left Demopolis, Alabama, on April 15, and he’s now cruising down the Gulf Coast of Florida, aiming to complete the 5,600 mile Loop in two to four months. “I thought this would be a good way to celebrate my 80th…

Boat Reviews
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New Axopar 37: A Fun, Fast and Very Cool Cruiser from Finland

The long, low, slender Axopar 37 Cabin, along with its smaller sibling, the Axopar 28 Cabin, caught my eye as I was walking down the dock at the recent Maine Boat Show in Rockland. The Axopars are definitely distinctive; they don’t look like any other boat out there. And they did attract a lot of attention, for two obvious reasons: They look like they’re fun, and they’re built for the way a lot of people are using their boats today. Axopars, it turns out, have impressed a lot of people around the world. Indeed, the 37 was voted Motor Boat…

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