Opinions of Evinrude Ficht 115 year 2000?

[Don Jones]

I am looking at a very desireable Boston Whaler Dauntless 16'.
Boat is very clean but have heard some dark stories about 2000 Evinrude Ficht 115 motors.
Is there any way to know what "useful" life may be left in motor?
It is from a dealer who will warranty it for 90 days.....then what?
Any personal experience with this brand.
I currently have a 1996 Evinrude 115 which has been very reliable!
Thanks for replies!

[Capt. Debbie]

We had Ficht 200hp's on the sea tow boats. Problematic designs. Like the onboard control computer is water cooled and the cooling water pick up tube to cool the damn thing is so narrow that a bit of sand will clog it. If computer is too hot, it goes to a run back position to keep about 2000rpms

See what the engine hours are. Those Ficht's have computer logs in their memory. Best Envinrude guy was Monmouth Marine on Rte 36 in Leonardo.

They can hook up a computer and even tell what the rpms were that were running, how long, # of starts and even if the original break in was properly followed. A gold mine of history is available to you on that motor with that PC hook up and software.

Not a bad motor, good on fuel, but had nuisance stuff popping up.

[Don Jones]

Thanks for taking time to share your experience!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Ficht is one of the biggest mistakes Evinrude ever made. Don't walk, RUN away from this engine.
Lots of issues with these engines since they rushed to meet the EPA requirements, blown power heads, lot of electronic issues.

If you see a boat with one of these engines on it for sale, they usually sell on the cheap because of the poor reputation of the Ficht.