Wow, moving to the coast..

I have ridden in a boat with a 250 SHO and it seemed very strong and very quiet, just concerned about how well they are holding up.

More reliable than any other motor on the market. Jmo. Now they are building a 25" model and are giving them a real test in the salt. No problems.

In the last 30 years or so I have owned every manufactured motor out there

OMC- Evinrude - Had several of these and the only problem was the VRO Systems sucked on everyone

Mercury - Not really any problems per say, just minor things here and there

Yamaha - had both HPDI and SHO. I thought the HPDI was great, but I love my 250 SHO, I have it on a Phoenix 921 and the two things I really like about it is 1. No Oil Smoke 2. Quiet running and I haven't noticed any difference in power from a 2 stroke to a 4 stroke.

One thing to remember - Do the maintenance and break in as instructed. A $100 worth of preventive maintenance now will save you $$$ later.

I have a 2010 SHO with almost 200 hrs. Never had one problem with it. I received the letter from Yamaha to replace the power head, but I see no reason to do it if I haven't had any problems. I think most of the major problems with the SHOs were due to improper break in. When I get ready to buy another new boat, it will have a SHO on it.

Their both good motors. I've blown power heads in both. But I think I favor the SHO for performance. It's just like one of the other threads said, it's how they were broke in that will determine how long the powerhead will last.