Anyone with a 2000ish AB Inflatable VST?

[Katch]

I've been running a '98 Yamaha C60 2-stroke on my '99 AB Inflatable 450 VST Oceanus; however, the motor seems to be slowly dying (110, 110, 85 psi compression on the cylinders). The transom plate allows for a 70 (or 75?) HP motor max. I'm considering getting the new Yamaha F70 LA 4-stroke. I'm looking for anyone with a similar boat and what size make/model motor are they running. These AB Inflatables seem pretty rare, as I don't see many posts about them. Would it be too crazy putting an $8,000 motor on a RIB that only cost about $2,500 to buy and fix up?

Thanks,
Steve

[boilermaker1]

Hi
I had a AB inflatable 430 VST and ran it with a 60hp 2 stroke Mercury.
Not a great rib, slow, rear of tubes always in the water causing resistance.
Hull very shallow at rear so rough ride in choppy water.
If you do buy a new engine, you have reliability and you can always move
it on to another boat

[Katch]

Originally Posted by boilermaker1

Hi
I had a AB inflatable 430 VST and ran it with a 60hp 2 stroke Mercury.
Not a great rib, slow, rear of tubes always in the water causing resistance.
Hull very shallow at rear so rough ride in choppy water.
If you do buy a new engine, you have reliability and you can always move
it on to another boat

May I ask how fast you were able to get that VST up to? I wonder if my motor was running on a bad cylinder since I bought it? I don't think mine has gone faster than 30mph.

Thanks...

[boilermaker1]

My AB inflatable would do about 30mph full throttle with Mercury 60 hp 2 stroke. I now have a 4.6 Tornado rib, it can do 42mph with a Yamaha 60hp 2 stroke.

[boilermaker1]

Originally Posted by boilermaker1

My AB inflatable would do about 30mph full throttle with Mercury 60 hp 2 stroke. I now have a 4.6 Tornado rib, it can do 42mph with a Yamaha 60hp 2 stroke.

The AB inflatable I had was a very heavy boat for it size. also It had the bench seat in the back with the stand alone console, which made the back of the boat very heavy