Unlike the carburetted two-stroke Tohatsu and Yamaha 60 competition, which are de-rated versions of their 70hp counterparts, the Mercury 60 is the most powerful of a trio of engines from 40-60hp.

Yet despite its light weight, achieved mainly through the fitment of a much smaller lower unit than the Japanese engines, it has the largest piston displacement of all carbie two-stroke 60s.

Mercury Marine says the two-stroke 60 is still one of its most popular outboards despite the increasing consumer demand for four-strokes in this power range. It has by far the highest-output alternator of the two-stroke 60s, yet at 12.6V it won't damage deep-cycle batteries used for powering electric trolling outboards, while the Modular CDI reduces maintenance and improves engine running qualities.

The Merc 60 has single-point variable-ratio oil injection, where oil is injected at the fuel pump, lubricating the carbie throttle butterfly shafts and having the added benefit of less chance of oil "gelling", clogging the oil filter and subsequently not reaching the crankshaft and connecting rod bearings and the piston rings.

Mounted on a Stacer 475 Easy Rider bowrider, the Mercury/Mariner 60 is the standard engine offered on this BMT combination. The demo engine started instantly hot or cold; warmed quickly from cold; and despite running on a 50:1 premix in addition to the oil-injection, it emitted oil smoke only on cold starting, with no smoke appearing at any other time. And only when backing into the wind was there any oil smell.

To my mind, the 60 was significantly smoother across the entire rev range than its Japanese competition; and when trolling, virtually no vibration was transmitted through the hull. The only drawback of the relatively small-diameter, fast-spinning prop was that for any real power astern, the anti-ventilation plate had to be kept fully immersed, and more throttle was needed when manoeuvring than the deep-gear-ratio Japanese competition.

Also, though positive in its throttle/gearshift overlaps, the remote-control box was notchier than expected.

Spinning a 13in-pitch alloy prop and pushing a total of 700kg, the 475 trolled at 5.1kmh on 850rpm using 2.1lt/h. At 1000 revs the average was 7.6kmh, and at 2000rpm it was 14.0kmh.

Due to the relatively light engine weight on Stacer's Mod Pod transom, the hull planed at only 24.0kmh on 3000rpm. While acceleration out of the hole was nothing spectacular, on this hull the Merc 60 should satisfy family needs such as fishing and wakeboarding.

Cruising at 4000rpm, the 475 averaged 38.5kmh using 11.3lt/h, and through tight figure-eight turns at these revs, no prop ventilation occurred and the power trim/tilt system responded rapidly.

With the leg trimmed right out to just before prop blow-out, the Stacer averaged 53.5kmh on 5300 revs across a 15cm chop using 25.7lt/h. Noise levels were probably a little lower than the direct competition, but due to the small diameter prop, the amount of prop slip was surprisingly high.

Powerhead access under the strongly made, snug-fitting upper cowl is very good, and the spark plugs, filters and carbie linkages are easily reached. Recommended servicing intervals are every 100 hours or once a year (also for waterpump impeller replacement) after the initial 20-hour service.

The warranty provides three-year across-the-board coverage as of July.