Re: Topaz 24'
I hand drew (?) a complete wiring diagram for the boat at one time because the dealers were asking for it. It never made it to digital. I may have a copy around that I will look for, but it will take a while. Most of my stuff is in boxes as I move it from my garage to the new shop. You may try contacting Ship Shops on Cape Cod or Brennen in Brick, NJ and see if they ever got a copy.
All of the Silverhawks built had the raised bow platform. We talked about making a mold insert to remove it but never did. Because of the amount of flair and taper, you would gain very little actual space and the sides would lean out too much or the gunwales would be massive wide.
The O/B bracket was glass that we molded in color to match the hull. A huge amount of labor to build but they sure did look nice. The first few o/b's used an aluminum bracket but none since then.
The twin o/b boats had weight and scupper issues if common sence was not used. Everyone thinks they need huge motors today. The boat ran fine with a large single or with twin 135's and was about perfect with 150's. One New England based boat some of you may know of ran 600 - 650 hours / year with 135 mercs and 140 suzies if I remember right. Twin 200 hpdi's were ok because they were built on the smaller blocks. The hot rod ss200's were cool because they were very light. I built one with twin 225 fitch's and it was just too much weight although it was fun when they ran right! Twin Verados just wouldn't work without a larger bracket chamber.
By the way, thanks to all for the kind words on these boats. They were my life for six years and it was hard to walk away but thats business sometimes. On to bigger and better things!
Mike.
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