By: Scott Way
Mercury Marine has announced that their engines, including the 350 and 400 Verados and other high horsepower outboards, will be available on nine Sportsman models beginning on November 1, 2020. With a growing demand for Mercury products in saltwater markets, the company has responded in kind and will offer Sportsman, their dealers, and other key saltwater OEM's to give their customers the opportunity to be powered by Mercury products. Mercury packages will be available on the Sportsman models 352, 322, 302, 251, 252, 267, 267OE and 247.
According to Bill Erickson, Founder & Owner of Erickson Marine, “We were extremely excited to hear Sportsman and Mercury are working together and we can start offering Mercury engines on Sportsman boats to our customers. Mercury has awesome products and our customers were demanding Mercury outboards on their boats. The engines perform incredibly well and have awesome power to weight ratio which is great for the larger bay boats and the offshore boats Sportsman currently offers. With a 26-foot bay boat, you need big horsepower to make it perform but also lightweight, so you do not draw much water – and Mercury has all of that.”
From Randy Caruana, Mercury Marine VP of the Americas and Asia Pacific, “This is the beginning of a great partnership and another opportunity to continue our increased presence in saltwater markets. Our teams have been collaborating on this partnership and it’s great to see Mercury power will be on board many of Sportsman’s Center Consoles around the country. We look forward to a bright future together.”
Sportsman, like all others in the marine industry, has seen increased demand in 2020 and has announced an increase in production to meet demand. Mercury is also planning to adds hundreds of new employees across its manufacturing and distribution departments in the coming months.
“We are seeing increased adoption of our entire product lineup from boaters around the world, specifically our high horsepower outboards which has led to increased adoption from new OEM’s and dealers,” said Chris Drees, Mercury Marine president. “Over the past 12 months, we have partnered with 100 new dealers and close to 40 new OEM’s – many in key saltwater markets across the United States. It is evident at major shows like the Miami International Boat Show and Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show where there have been more Mercury engines at the show than any other outboard manufacturer over the past few years.”
The Mercury Marine engine department has been a bustle in recent months, having recently launched a forward-facing Mercruiser engine, as well as an all-new 360 APX competition outboard.
You can check out Sportsman's walkthrough of their all-new 302 Center Console, which will be available with the Mercury power option, in the video below:
