[ScottM]

Lost,
Unless you're definitely going the bracket route and closing in the transom, my suggestion is not for you, but here goes anyway...When repowering my father's Sceptre last season ('97 225 Yamaha), he added a jack plate with 6" setback (another story), plus cut out the in-deck livewell and created a storage area in that space. Things that had been stored in the cuddy (2 anchors and rode, life jackets, etc.) were moved to the new storage space. By moving that stuff to the back and adding the jack plate, he was able to change the at-rest attitude of the boat enough to make the self-draining cockpit do it's job correctly. We guess that about 100#s of stuff was shifted, plus changing the fulcrum point of the engine with the jackplate, was enough to change the attitude.

I would definitely look into this option if you're only going the bracket route to change the attitude. It's less money and time, and a lot easier than adding a bracket.