Good luck Jeff! And keep the posts and pictures coming.

Here's a shot of Skiblet's boat from the Long Point gathering in 2008. It does look to be sitting a bit low in the stern, but it would be worse with those 4-strokes! Current weight on the 25" small-block E-TEC is 433 lbs and would definitely be a better choice than the 4-stroke, with lower total operating costs (fuel + oil + maintenance) than any of the 4-strokes per this article
http://www.boatingmag.com/engines/ou...MjQ1NDU1MzI5S0. The article is a bit misleading because they only evaluated costs for 300 hours, and all the 4-strokes require a valve lash inspection/adjustment at 500 hrs which would add several hundred $ to their costs. If they had run the comparisons for 600 hrs, and E-TEC would save even more $ because the fuel costs were almost identical to the 4-strokes, so the significant difference is in the maintenance costs!

However a big single plus a kicker would be my choice - much less weight and cost and much less to maintain. I'd also question if a single 4-stroke would have enough low end torque plane the boat of one if them died! If it won't plane on one engine, you won't be able to run much faster than you could with a 15 hp kicker, which will push it to hull speed! Check out this post by DonV's brother, where he learned all about that torque difference when he replaced a pair of 225 4-strokes with a couple of E-TEC 200HO's: http://www.etecownersgroup.com/post/...00-hos-6556802

Here is a friend of mines 23' SeaCraft "Savage" model with twin 4 stroke 150hp Yamahas. The stern sits pretty low in the water as you can see. I imagine twin 200's would be about the same. As a point of reference, he has an Armstrong aluminum non floatation bracket. The tower probably also has an effect on pushing the COG to the rear. The best I remember, he said it is NOT self bailing at rest and need the plugs in at all times except when planing. Otherwise the performance is very good.