When I was a kid, you could tell who owned a "BIG" outboard engine. They were the guys struggling to carry two heavily laden 6-gallon fuel tanks down the dock to their boat. Flash forward to today and if you don't have at least three monster outboards hanging on your transom and a 300-plus gallon fuel tank in your boat, then you're really not even in the game. I am still amazed when I see a boat cruise by with outboards totaling more than a thousand horses.

Modern outboards have become so powerful that many of them now rival the horsepower traditionally produced by much heavier in-board diesel engines. Factor in that today's four-stroke outboards are quieter, faster and a lot more fuel-efficient, and you can see why they have become such a popular option for large tournament-style fishing boats.

When it comes to outboards, boaters tend to be a pretty loyal group when deciding which brand of engine to put on their boat. This steadfast, albeit somewhat biased loyalty, can lead to some pretty heated debates around the docks. It seems as though everyone has his or her own criteria when deciding which outboard company produces the "best engine."

I inevitably end up on the side of the dock that has captains defending Japanese engines. This is mainly due to the fact that the ones I have owned were simply more dependable (and when you are 30 miles off-shore this is an outstanding attribute). Of course this raises the ire of a few who are quick to chastise us as being unpatriotic. They adamantly feel that we should only buy outboards that are "made in the U.S.A."

I'll admit that I have owned a couple of engines manufactured in America, and one of them was actually pretty good. However, if I recall correctly, when I took off the engine cover of my "made in the U.S.A. engine," it was literally covered with little stickers indicating that the coils were made in Mexico, the power-pack was fabricated in Guatemala, etc.

Unfortunately, the new world economy has resulted in a situation where very few U.S. products are actually 100 percent American made. The truth is, I would be proud to buy an outboard engine made in our country and, as soon as they make them more dependable, I will certainly be inclined to do so.

My dad's first "big" outboard was made by an innovative U.S. company that to this day, continues to paint their engines black. Scientifically, this dark color is considered to be the "absence of light" (which coincidentally seems to describe their engineering team's thought process when they built my dad's engine). Remarkably, they designed this powerful engine without a neutral. There literally was a kill switch placed exactly where neutral should have been.

You are probably wondering how an outboard without a neutral actually works. Well, not very well. My dad would carefully advance the throttle just a little into forward gear position. He would then yell, "Hold on," and turn the key. Of course, starting the engine in gear made it imperative that the captain first checked to make sure that the bow was pointed well away from other boats and obstructions in the area. As a young crew member, I also learned the hard way that it was absolutely essential that you (me) untied the boat from the dock before dad hit the ignition switch!

Unfortunately, for everyone on-board, this "new and innovative big horsepower engine" rarely started on the first try. This meant that the crew would hang on for dear life as the boat jumped, hopped and surged forward, all the while making us look like characters in a funny cartoon. Eventually, after three or four attempts, this massive engine would finally roar to life. At this point, the dog would almost fly over the transom as my dad struggled to gain control of those wild 75 horses. I can still hear people on the dock laughing at us as we raced away toward the horizon.

It gets worse. These brilliant engineers also thought it might be kinda fun to design it so that, when you came back to the dock, you had to once again put the throttle where neutral should have been (kill switch), which immediately caused the engine to quit running. Once it died you would pull the throttle carefully back into the reverse gear and re-start (hopefully) the engine-which would now magically run backwards. Needless to say, this marvel of engineering created a lot of humorous situations whenever we launched, and even more when we attempted to come into the dock! Even as a little kid, I knew this engine was just crazy, and I swore right then and there that I would never own one of these crazy outboards -- even if they were "the fastest on the water." To this day, I still can't bring myself to trust these engines. As a result, I have developed a collection of jokes about them which I gladly share with anyone willing to listen:

• Mercury outboards get great fuel mileage... Of course, this is usually due to the fact that they won't start.

• What's the difference between a Mercury and an anchor? Although they both will keep you from going anywhere, one is painted all black.

• Mercury was the first company to put two big outboards on a boat -- They had to, as that was the only way the engineers could be sure that they would actually get back to the dock.

• Verado -- it's a French term meaning: "I need a tow."

Awhile back, a friend of mine was coming down the canal in his flats boat. He was beaming as he slowed down to proudly show me his new Mercury. Sure enough, just as soon as he put the engine into neutral, it died. I tried not to laugh. He then gave me one of those all too familiar expressions seen on many boaters' faces, and muttered something that sounded like, "It just does that." I threw him a rope and pulled him along side the sea wall. I stood on the dock overlooking my befuddled friend and his shiny new engine. After a thorough inspection, I said, "I think I see your problem. It looks like you have a bad connection." He sighed with relief and said, "Is that all it is?" I said "Yep, it appears you have a Mercury ... connected to your transom." True story, I kid you knot! To this day, he is still mad at me for making fun of his new engine.

I know captains who put a lot of hours on these outboards and they absolutely love them. I have to admit that when they are running they are very quiet, exceptionally fast and get great gas mileage! However, for some reason I just can't get past my youthful experiences with these confounded machines.

Fortunately, today's outboards are a lot more dependable than they use to be, but like I always say... If you are going to build something out of metal and then dip it in salt water, you're gonna have problems.

Capt. Pete Peterson welcomes comments and suggestions sent to petersonventures@aol.com.