I like many things about brackets BUT, I cant get over the impact they have when trolling for big fish, especially with standup rods. When drift fishing, one can more easily avoid the bracket, but get a speedy wahoo on while trolling and it zig zags in a second, the engine is set back too far for me. Or simply when fish see the boat and take a last second, sudden run, the bracket makes it tough. Its already hard with outboards right on the transom as it is.

This is why I didnt consider the bracket for mine, but I must admit I do like the look and the more efficient use of cockpit space. Also, Ive heard of some guys initially having trouble with porpoising and adjusting motor height.

Has anyone dropped a big single outboard with bracket (max floatation) on a 23', say a 350 Yamaha or 350sci Mercury???

There's an older 238 Mako here in the Fort Walton Beach area with a single Yamaha 350 V8 on hull-width flotation bracket, where the bracket looks like it was originally made to hold triple motors. It's got to be set back about 36 inches, with the old cut-out nicely filled in. He's got what locals here call a "Ling Tower" on it. (That's a mini tuna-tower without an upper control station).
He says it floats higher at the stern now with that motor on a bracket than it did with a single Yamaha 250 stroke mounted on the transom.
He's not happy with the reliability of the one year-old motor, having been towed in twice in six months, with electrical/computer issues both times. He claims averaging less than 2 miles per gallon at 25 mph cruise and said he got 3 mpg with the old motor.
He's not a regular at West Marine where I work a couple of mornings a week. I see the boat on the lift frequently, but I've only seen it in the water once, and that at the wrong end of a tow-line. :-(

They did build one of these. Well seacraft didnt but a company made an exact copy of a 23 and had a bracket like this on is from factory. I believe is was an ocean pro.

OceanPro 24 . . . I found a few pics. That is almost exactly what I want to do with mine. It's like a 23 seacraft with a interpid style transom.

http://www.bluewaverentals.com/oceanpro.html

A buddy of mine bought one of those hulls brand new a few years back and then had it all rigged out, nice looking boat but it totally fell apart on him,said it was a big pile of shizzz,it wasnt even worth fixing so he stripped it down sold everything and towed the hull to the dump and bought a 27 Contender...

I thought silver hawk 27 was a 23 with an integrated bracket?

http://silverhawkboats.com/2700cc.html

I think you're close. I believe the 27 is integrated, the original Silverhawk was 24 and could be had with Armstrong bracket. It looks like this generation of the 24' can't be had with a bracket. As a side note, they make these boats up to the mid 30's now. Interesting use and modification of the SC/Potter design and very nice boats. I have been curious about how well the 30'ftr and bigger run, supposedly they blow away the later 32' SC's.

I'm not sure why some say adding a bracket changes the center of gravity. With my twin 426lb Suzuki 115's they weigh about as much as a single Y350 and in my opinion are the most weight the boat could handle.

One thing I did to move the CG forward was to install a new fuel tank. My previous tank was the standard 150 gallon one that went from the front of the console to way back.
I believe it was 8 feet long. I had a custom 100 gallon tank fabricated and it was 2 1/2 feet shorter therefore effectively moving or offsetting some of the rear biased weight.

When I first ran the boat with stock 23" aluminum props it ran very nice but with no tab, it was a tiny bit bow light so I needed a little tab all the time. I ran it for a few months and swapped out the props for Stilettos. I think they are 24's. Well the boat absolutely runs flat as flat can be, is very trimmable and can stay on plane down to 13-14kts with tabs fully down in flat water and in very rough water she just plows through the rough stuff at 16.5kts.

850lbs on the transom is not ideal but it works perfectly with the modifications I have made and many members and 'ol Carl and his wife can attest to the wonderful ride the boat has.

Another Stiletto fan. A 3 blade that runs real flat. You and Egg might be on to something.