Vezo, glad to hear you got the tank out! I think I would have cut off the lip at front of opening that that the hatch rests on, as that could be easily glassed back on. On the ~34 gal OEM tank on my '72 (which I'm still using; they were wise enough to not put ANY foam around it in '72!), about 3' of the bottom sloped up at the front so it would clear the front edge of the hatch, and the aft 3' or so of the top was sloped down, probably so the aft part of the tank would clear the aft edge of the hatch. I've had my tank out a couple of times, and it's about a 5 minute job, once everything is disconnected!
The '76 models had a smaller step down and a longer 50 gallon tank, and I'm sure the sketches Terry provided probably show a similar taper on the top and bottom of the tank. Besides removing the added cross members that get in the way of the tank, have you considered going with 2 smaller tanks, which could probably made larger, w/o the tapered top and bottom, and still fit easily through the hatch? Two tanks would allow you to adjust the CG a bit, and might allow you to leave one tank empty most of the time for short trips.
Regarding the limited steering travel on the modern SeaStar system, I was amazed to learn that it was designed that way on purpose, per NAEBM specs! Evidently there are so many liability lawyers running around loose that NAEBM is terrified that some idiot will put the helm hard over at WOT, flip the boat, and then sue them because of his own stupidity! (Never mind that the typical cable system will do that all by itself if you just let go of the wheel!) I believe it's possible to get almost full travel by just mixing and matching old and new parts, because I've seen older SeaStar systems that provide much more travel. Hope to work with Don Herman to resolve that issue in the next couple of months.
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