When will Australia’s first boat stacked with six 400hp outboard engines arrive?

US brands Cigarette Racing and Scout both used last week’s 2019 Miami International Boat Show to launch hulls featuring six of the all-new Mercury Verado 400 outboard engines fitted – the 42-foot Cigarette Tirranna and the 53-foot Scout 530 LXF – setting a new benchmark for performance bragging rights.

Adding to the excitement, the launch of Mercury’s most powerful recreational engine to ever wear the Verado name coincided with the US outboard engine maker also revealing that its Joystick Piloting for Verado – the software-based system that helps skippers with tricky low-speed maneuvers – had expanded beyond four engines to now include five- and six-engine applications.

Better still, Mercury has confirmed that the same trick joystick system will be available to Australian customers, opening the door to someone here rolling out the nation’s first boat packing five or six outboard engines.

Just when that is remains a mystery. However, it’s likely to be a long wait, with industry insiders telling boatsales.com.au most of the Australian market was focused on sports fishing boats ranging from 20 to 30 feet – well below the hull lengths capable of handling the bigger horsepower applications dropping in the US.

The launch of Yamaha’s new V8 range, starting with the Yamaha 425 XTO Offshore, coincided with the 2018 Perth International Boat Show. The outboard engine maker celebrated the event by fitting four of the powerful, 425 horsepower 5.6-litre bent eights to Fawesome, a twin-hull charter boat owned by Perth-based tour group Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures, giving a combined 1700hp.

Fitting six of the new 400-horsepower Mercury 400 Verado outboard engines gives a combined 2400hp – a more than 40 percent gain in performance over Fawesome’s set-up. The smaller, lighter supercharged in-line six engines pack in together much more tightly than 400hp-plus V8-based rivals, allowing for more horsepower along the limited stretch of real estate that is the transom.

Mercury Marine Australia spokesman Nicholas Webb said just like the US, Australian customers were chasing higher horsepower applications for their boats – but not to the extent of their North American counterparts.

“In North America it’s a really big trend [to more horsepower],” Webb said. “In places like Florida they want the boat to run out to the Bahamas, and the cost of fuel is much lower,” he said.

“In Australia, we’re also a bit limited by the boats available, and if we’re seeing multiple engines they’re usually a custom boat or a US boat.”

He said that while there were a number of quad-engined boats spread across Queensland, NSW and Western Australia – and even a few heading across the ditch to New Zealand – Mercury Australia was not aware of any higher engine counts just yet.

The rush to big horsepower has encouraged Mercury to explore ways of making its multiple-engined applications much more user-friendly, electronically controlling the turn, tilt and counter-rotating propellers to create boats that can spin on their own length and even crab walk sideways into a tight mooring.

The joystick function is able to:

Mercury Australia plans to have the new Mercury 400 Verado on show at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in May, and to have several boats on the water fitted with the engine at the Sydney International Boat Show in August.

The company shipped more high horsepower in 2018 than ever on the back of its April launch of the all new V6 and V8 engines, and is looking to build on this success in 2019 with a full year of production and continued strong demand.

Mercury’s Joystick Piloting system is now available for multiple fit-ups of Verado outboards, as well as inboard engines and sterndrives.

So back to our original question: When are we likely to see an Aussie boat packing serious multiple Mercury outboard engine heat?

Sadly, the answer appears to be no time soon.