I must admit right up front, that I have zero experience with this type of throttle set up, or any type of "offshore" ( pun intended ) shift/throttle, but I can tell you this much......I believe even my sister, who happily doesn't know much about engines, would probably HEAR that the engine(s) sounded funny. My ears told me that something was askew with the idle from the very beginning. That boat should have been shut down by the operator because the engine(s) was telling him something. It's a point we all should acknowledge, boating is a motorsport, listen to your engine, it should be warmed up , settled down, and idling well before attempting to be underway. By the posts, it appears that many of you heard a problem too.