Verado 350 SCi power strengthens Victoria’s Water Police

Victoria’s Water Police are now benefitting from the celebrated power and reliability of Mercury’s awesome Verado outboards.

The police are using twin 350 SCi Verado’s behind their three new Zodiac Hurricane RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) so they can catch virtually anything on the water and get to incidents as quickly as possible. 

“A key requirement was that the engines needed to drive the RIBs to at least 50 knots (93 km/h),” said David Meehan, Director Government and Commercial products for Mercury. 

“Even though the weather was a bit rough during testing we hit that target – these are fast boats!”

Another major plus was the fact every 6 cylinder Verado outboard comes with SmartCraft® Digital Throttle & Shift (DTS) as standard.  DTS puts the driver in total command, delivering automotive-like control, instant throttle response and smooth shifting by eliminating the hesitation of traditional mechanical cable systems.

The high-performance 350 SCi Verados feature a 2.6-litre supercharged engine with electronically controlled sequential multi-port fuel injection, four valves per cylinder, double overhead cam design, a charge-air cooler and electronic boost bypass control.

Mercury’s SmartStart technology also means all the police have to do is turn the key and release, and the engines will start automatically.

Victoria’s Water Police coordinate all marine incidents throughout the state, and receive more than 700 calls a year for assistance.

The new Verado-powered RIBs are based at Williamstown and are constantly involved in beach patrols, rescues, boarding and pursuits.

“The engines have done more than 100 hours now and they are going very well,” David said.

There’s plenty of torque to get those big RIBs out of the water and they’re very quiet even when going flat out.” 

Mercury supplied the six engines with heavy duty gear-cases to provide the ultimate in durability in a heavy commercial environment.

“Over the years Verado has earned a brilliant reputation for reliability, and clearly that’s very, very important for an organisation like the police,” David said.