*** Mercury Media X-Cursion Saturday Report - Photos Here! ***

[Scream And Fly]

Hi all,

It's been a long but fun day of boat testing and presentations. Mercury had a lot of cutting edge products here for us to try, like the new Zeus and Apollo drive systems, which are the most significant innovation in the marine indusry in recent history. Full details wil be available in our upcoming article, but here are some photos!


Photo: L. "Ted" Meuché III introduces us to the 38' Donzi ZR Competition powered by twin 700SCi sterndrives.

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And now presenting the most amazing event of the day - Sandi docking a boat. This is the greatness of Apollo - joystick control that's so easy even she can do it. She has never piloted a boat in her life, and she backed a 29-foot large boat into a slip in windy conditions. Amazing. This system will change boating. I used it extensively today, and was floored by it.
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Bill McEathron, Director of Small Outboards takes us for a ride on a 15' Whaler Sport powered by the updated Mercury 60-horsepower EFI 4-stroke. Lots of power and very quiet. This is not your typical 4-stroke. outboard.
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[Scream And Fly]

Single control Shadow Technology was featured on this impressive 39' Sea Vee powered by four 300-horsepower Verados. It's big. It's fast. And it's as easy to pilot as a single-engine skiff. Mercury's innovation with Shadow Technology is a decade ahead of the competition here. It has to be driven to be believed.

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Offshore Only's Josh Loe (pictured at right) checking out the triple 300XS outboards. We both agreed that the featured tiller-steered (with hydraulic assist) OptiMax 150 was something we would love to have tested. :)
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[WaterBoy]

Everything looks good and all, but I have to say. How many of, lets say, the average working man or woman can actually afford one of these. I would think that with all this new nice and shiney expensive new stuff is what is slowly driving what we all enjoy and can afford away. Along with the EPA. Well, just blowing some steam anyway :rolleyes:

Waterboy

[Scream And Fly]

Actually, the market is for all income brackets - not just the wealthy. There were products there ranging from a small 30-horsepower EFI outboard to the 700SCi sterndrive. Boating is not an inexpensive hobby, but generally, performance boating has always been more costly.


Everything looks good and all, but I have to say. How many of, lets say, the average working man or woman can actually afford one of these. I would think that with all this new nice and shiney expensive new stuff is what is slowly driving what we all enjoy and can afford away. Along with the EPA. Well, just blowing some steam anyway :rolleyes:

Waterboy

[Riverman]

Greg, Volvo Penta has had the joystick docking out for 3-4 years already. I agree, it is a great idea. It will put a lot of glass repair people out of business!

[yellowallison]

:p :p

[Scream And Fly]

Greg, Volvo Penta has had the joystick docking out for 3-4 years already. I agree, it is a great idea. It will put a lot of glass repair people out of business!

Jeff, yes - but the Mercury system is different in many ways. I'll go over it in my article. :)

[Markus]

Mercury had a lot of cutting edge products here for us to try, like the new Zeus and Apollo drive systems, which are the most significant innovation in the marine indusry in recent history.

They can spin it however they want, but they are basically catching up with Volvo Penta's IPS system. ;)

[ChrisXS2003]

They can spin it however they want, but they are basically catching up with Volvo Penta's IPS system. ;)

It's called "me too" marketing in my business...

[Skittles]

They can spin it however they want, but they are basically catching up with Volvo Penta's IPS system. ;)

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Riverman]

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:Someone that has not done a direct comparison obviously.

[Scream And Fly]

They can spin it however they want, but they are basically catching up with Volvo Penta's IPS system. ;)

You mean their pod drive system?

[Markus]

Pod drive?

[TD]

Was there anything there that the rest of us can appreciate. :confused:

[Scream And Fly]

Was there anything there that the rest of us can appreciate. :confused:

If you can't appreciate the high technology outboards (Verado, OptiMax - consumer and race models), race stern drives, and new outboards introduced, what would you want to see? The Media X-Cursion is about product technology, new products, and the company's direction. All of these should interest you in some way. They invite us there so we can report this hands-on experience to all of you. No worries though, they still make the drag motor though, so you can buy one if you want. :)

Greg

[Fish]

cool pics Greg, love that donzi ZR.

[AwesomeBullet]

Great pics Greg! Good to see all of the new products, time for everyone to step it up a notch and bring on the next wave of consumer outboards! :D

[Mark75H]

Single control Shadow Technology was featured on this impressive 19' Sea Vee powered by ...

Man, that thing sure has a lot of room for a 19 footer ;)

[Scream And Fly]

Man, that thing sure has a lot of room for a 19 footer ;)

Oops, that's (obviously) 39 feet. That's what happens when I add updates from a small laptop in the middle of everything. :D

[Flat_Out]

Greg,

Did you drive the little inflatable? I know how much you love the little boats.

[Scream And Fly]

Greg,

Did you drive the little inflatable? I know how much you love the little boats.

No, unfortunately, but we did get to go out on the Whaler. :)

[stokernick]

thought you might have ment 19 foot beam with 4 shrimp on the back!!