Don does charge a premium for his bracket, but if you boat in salt water, there's something to be said for never having to worry about corrosion on it! Plus the fact that it has a lot more flotation than any other bracket, which allows my boat to still be self bailing at the dock with a relatively heavy modern motor. With a different bracket, I'd have to raise the deck to get that capability, so if I factored in the cost of ripping up and replacing a perfectly solid original deck, the cost premium becomes insignificant!
Another option I recommend that anyone consider that's planning to install a bracket, or even a heavy 4-stroke motor on the transom, is to also move the console, batteries and gas tank forward to offset the CG shift that will otherwise occur! That will also help the self bailing issue and possibly eliminate the need for a 4B prop and fin to maintain a low planing speed and good ride. I didn't have that option since the Seafari has no console and I didn't want to eliminate the large stepdown in the cockpit required to move the gas tank and batteries. However the Seafari also has more weight forward than the CC to begin with, and the large cabin makes it easy to load lots of gear up front, so the Hermco bracket has proven to be a great solution to the low transom and space issues I wanted to address.
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