Nice power plant. There are lots of boats with brackets on this website, check out the albums. To do it over again I would probably use a bracket with less setback. If I had planned to use a 500 lb motor, I would have only used a 24" setback. Joe7670 is installing a new Optimax on a bracket right now.The Gil bracket is tough as nails, my concern there would be the lack of floatation versus what you get when you use a box type bracket. Shifting weight to the bow of the boat is a good idea when practical as anything you hang off the rear will tend to weigh down the transom. I love the full transom but there are tradeoffs, my boat isn't a self bailer anymore. Besides the fabrication of the bracket there are other $$$ concerns, hydraulic steering comes to mind. It just is not practical to have a teleflex type steering cable. There are a lot of concerns about porposing that would require trim tabs. More $$$. Basically I think that lots of planning and budgeting is the first step.
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