I'm in process of repowering the Work of Art. While I love the look of the old school Mercury Mark 25 and enjoyed the positive comments about it, I find I'm not using the boat much because I've lost faith in the motor, my limited mechanical ability and the time to work on it. I've taken People Choice Award at Torch Lake, 2nd place Contemporary at Hessel and returned again a few years later and took 1st place Contemporary. If the motor was key to those awards, well too bad because I now find 13 years later, I need an electric start, power tilt/trim, and confidence that all is working well with only simple maintenance required. You might say I've lost that loving feeling.
I reconnected with Bruce Lirones, the person that inspired me to build my boat. He said he was tired of the maintenance required on old Mercury's and switched to a new Suzuki 4 stroke, electric start, power tilt trim, 20 hp outboard. At 120 pounds, (vs. Mercury Mark 25 at 75 pounds) he said they work well on a small boat and the extra bit of weight over the old Mercury's is not a problem. They are quiet too. All I needed to hear.
Motor ordered, should be here in about a week. I'll post updates as I go along. I'll be doing the refitting and any necessary changes to the boat to accommodate the motor.
