[THEFERMANATOR]

Sounds like it went pretty well for a maiden voyage. Putting it in and retrieving it under it's own power makes for a good maiden voyage in any book. For your idling I would reccomend cleaning the carbs. The poof sound when it dies is what we call a lean sneeze, most likely due to some varnish in the idle circuit fuel pick-up. 4500 is also pretty low for WOT, with a good load on board I personally would like to see close to 5200-5300 as I believe that engine you have calls for a 4500-5500 WOT RPM range. Try the 17 first as that seems to be the magic number for most guys here. As for thru-hull fittings, that is to be expected with any boat older than 10 years old. My 96 PROLINE had a few cracked in it as well when I got it. And for your launching problem, a single axle trailer can have those problems. Try raising the tongue of your trailer some to see if that helps. It looks like your boat is sitting fairly bow low on the trailer which will make it harder to float the stern when unloading.