looking for a new boat - do i really need a 4.3?

[jkust]

realtivly newer 10 year old boat

Boating technology has moves so slow the past 15 years since the addition of small block v8 and v6 Multi Port injection as well as boat design, ten years in the boating world is relatively little. My boat model for example was exactly the same for ten years up to almost 2010....literally only gel coat band colors and interior color changes each year and only very slightly. The run of the mill bowrider brands that we all know to me are lazy when it comes to how progressive they are. Even worse is some brands are still building like it's 2002 while others have moved to newer designs these past years. It took until 2015 for the new Mercruisers to come out even.

 

[leakytarp]

My first boat had a 3.0. It was a Bayliner. With 4 people on board and 2 tubes behind it with a person on each one we would have to shift everone to the bow to plane out. My cousins came in from Florida and wanted to go ski. They could start on one ski. I drug them underwater until they would have to let go. Most embarrased i've ever been. They were great skiers but the 3.0 would not pull them up. 2 years later when they came in I had a 5.0mpi. They weren't interested in going skiing until I told them I had a new boat.

Why would you be embarassed? I was thankful at every opportunity I could get back in the day to join someone on a boat and getting up on one ski behind an underpowered boat was a welcomed challenge.
Yeah you get dragged under water for 3-5 seconds, there is a simple solution, just hold your breath, talk about 1st world problems...
Once you're up the 3.0 has MORE than enough power.
And if it won't work at all, why not just work on the wakeboard skills that day, for which the 3.0 is absolutely sufficient? There is always plenty of fun to be had, imo the determining factor is attitude, not engine displacement.

 

[JimS123]

There is always plenty of fun to be had, imo the determining factor is attitude, not engine displacement.

Whoa...I gotta cut and paste that into my "quotes to remember database".

When I was a kid we went skiing behind an old woodie with a 25 Evinrude. A rich kid's Dad at the lake had a 75 (the biggest made at the time) and we were all envious. Truth be told we had more fun than he did. When I grew up I found out that the 25 was all we really needed and to this day I still own the same rig.

​If you gotta be BETTER than the Joneses, then don't settle for a woosie 4.3, get a 7.4, or better yet, twins. If you just want to have fun with the family and have an engine that you can pass on to your grandchildren, well, you know....