I cant help but think to myself

[klaucke]

I have a '72 20' CC w/ I/O, which I upgraded to an Alpha One engine and outdrive. I like it, still have four stroke reliability, good gas mileage, easy to work on, parts are readily available, etc. For me, I didn't think it was worth it to convert to outboard, which I considered.

I have been told the brackets + outboard are the best set-up for manuevability, top speed, etc. Its not that big a deal to me to justify the cost.

Putting the tank under the floor is a good idea, though. I wish I had done that to mine last summer when I replaced the floor, I even have a tank to do it with, but it just didn't occur to me at the time! With the tank under the floor, you can use a smaller console, which I think is key.

[jongolds]

besides the extra deck space the OB will let you in to more shallow water too. I always hated that I couldn't trim my old IO completely out of the water. Actually though now that I mention it my bracket is either too short or my engine to tall but, I can't completely trim this OB out either. I can get it nearly out though. Certainly high enough wher it's no longer the low point draft wise which is what always bothered me with the IO.

If you store the boat at all though, keep in mind how much longer the bracket will make you. They charge you for that.

[nestorpr]

My Alpha One tilts up more than enough to push my boat in skinny water. In fact, if you look at my boat's pictures in the main page you can see that she's sitting in about a foot of water with the drive tilted completely up. My brother even thinks he can go bonefishing in her when he comes visiting but I think that might be pushing it a bit!

[jongolds]

I used to like to water ski in a tidal pond where we would literaly get every one out of the boat and lift it a few inches to get over a dam that was just below the water level so I was always very jealous of the outboard guys that were able to tilt completely out of the water.