...that it is a shame the entire package is marred by a few "needless" flaws. Cooling system troubles (both leaks and overheating) and saildrive issues (mostly revolving around lube recommendations and resulting premature cone clutch failure) have left me holding the bag until I figured out exactly how to maintain the drive train to avoid them. Mack Boring was of no help when the first saildrive failed months out of warranty and although they tried they never did successfully repair the coolant leak from the cheap filler neck swaged into the exhaust manifold/heat exchanger.

I finally replaced the filler neck with a 4 bolt flange type from an older Yanmar, after removing the manifold for the necessary machining. The saildrive is much happier once I switched to a difficult to obtain gl-4 synthetic gear oil that allows the cone clutch to live a much longer life. The first cone clutch was devastated in 500 hours using Yanmars "suggested gl-5 lube, to the point that I elected to replace the unit rather than rebuild it due to the cost of the parts damaged. I now change the cone after 700 to 800 hours and it has virtually no wear. All of this even with the Gori propeller Mack Boring claimed was responsible for the damage.

Yanmar was no help at all in dealing with these problems. I simply worked it out on my own. In the end I have a very nice package but at considerable time and money.

I would think long and hard before buying a Yanmar again.