[THEFERMANATOR]

I have a sea-drive boat, but the weight isn't as far back on a sea-drive as a bracketed boat. YAMAHA has drawn ALOT of critiscism over there stated weight as they tend to be about 50 pounds heavier than the weight they say. YAMAHA states there weight with no prop, no fuel in the engine, no oil in the engine or lower unit, just the bare engine. HONDA states the weight of there engine dressed out like it would be on the boat. The 150/175 SUZUKI weighs about the same as the 150 YAMAHA coming in under 500. DUSKY currentlu builds there 203 based off of the original V-20 and they are all bracketed boats.

You need to keep in mind the actual weight on the YAMAHA 225 is around 650 dressed out plus 75 pounds or so for the bracket, so you have 725 pounds back there with that combo. The 225 2.7L SEA-DRIVE weighed in under 625 even with power steering on it, 610 for the plane jane. So that's 115 pounds more back there. The other thing is the sea-drive kept alot more weight forward vs all on the back. Also not many V-20 CC's(if any) got the V-6 sea-drive from the factory, most got the 1.6L(465 pounds) or 2.0L V-4's(540 pounds). Also the set-back on a sea-drive is 16 inches, and the standadrd set-back on a bracket is 30.

So now were talking 14 inches more set-back than origanally designed for, and add in roughly 185 pounds. Now your talking a pretty noticeable change that will seriously alter the CG. Moving your console forward was a definate plus as well as the fuel tank. Also keep in mind factory sea-drives already had the tank moved pretty far forward to begin with. Putting the batteries under the console would be mandatory, but furthur forward would help even more.

My V-20 cuddy with a 1.6L sea-drive in my opinion was stern heavy, and you don't have the cuddy weight up in the bow either. Would hate to see you go through all of this and have a boat that doesn't do what you envisioned.

Heres a link to the DUSKY 203 that is based off of the V-20.
http://www.dusky.com/boats/dus203.html