[BigLew]

Schooner,

None of your answers surprise me. Your point about 3 foot seat pedestals is well taken. When I worked at West Marine it was amazing how many boat owners would come in complaining that their seat pedestals had worked loose from the deck to which they were mounted. When I explained what they would need to do; back plates, resin lined mounting holes and such, they invariably reached for the toggle bolts and doomed themselves to repeating the headache in a year or two. Go figure!

The seat boxes is another question. I've thought about trying to convert one to livewell, but haven't heard anyone speak of doing so. I do know that the inner liner of the box would need to be glassed in and sealed at the upper edge. The plumbing would be pretty straightforward given the drainage through hull that is already at the bottom of each seat box. The challenge would be getting behind the liner to run the plumbing and such. You could probably set up a real nice raw water wash down/livewell set up, though. That said, there's no doubt that they make a great place to store your bumpers!

The performance numbers are in line with what I suspected. Quite frankly, my current engine puts out 260 horsepower and its numbers are roughly the same as yours. I think most of the difference is made up in the extra for weight of fuel and engine. I figure I can add five knots to cruise speed and maybe seven or eight on top end by going up to 300+ horsepower and reducing normal fuel weight. More horsepower should allow a higher pitch prop and the fuel weight is self explanatory.

I really wish you the best with the sale. I'd love to buy it and get back in the water, but as they say opportunities realized in life is a function of availability and ability to execute. I realize you're selling the boat, but please, don't stop being a member and let us all hear from you from time to time. By the way, you mentioned you have a number of boats. What other boats to have?