Bozeman Bob

Agree with FF34 , your eyes will adjust better with the light above and even or slightly in front of your sightline. Just think of walking in the woods with a flashlight ,you can see more if you hold it over your head than holding it at your waist and pointing forward. Stadium lighting is always high for a reason. You will not get any glare off the bow of the boat that way. Spotlight or HID LED bar light is your next option . Spotlight is good for zeroing in on buoys ect in the harbor. LED is more of a flood light and has no moving parts to break as well as working better in a fog ,[ for other boats to see you ] if you are caught in one without radar. Either is better than nothing.

Wouldn't think you would get any glare off your windshield , seeing that you don't have one . I would mount it on the T-Top , the higher the better. That should reduce any glare off the water . Most ,if not all hard top boats have them mounted on the hard top , not there pulpits. Seems like it gives more off a seeable spread and is out of harms way. Most of the boats I see with pulpit lights are soft top and unless they make a mounting bracket on there windshield frame have no other choice as to where to mount them. Then if they did they are dealing with hiding wires in and around there frame ,which is easier said than done.

Might want to post or search this on thehulltruth.com

I would upgrade to a Petronix system and lose the points. And use there coil , different ( ohms or resistance ) than what's on your engine now. Generally cleaning the points is a stop gap measure as the " plating" is now sanded off and pitting will soon follow. Also seems to improve starting and low speed , as in trolling , performance.

I also wondered, but not about the weight capacity . There must be a load of some sort on the out drive.The pushing and or torque action of the prop comes to mind. Is the structural strength of Coosaboard the same relative to the thickness as plywood ? Didn't actually see that in there write up. Plywood glued together with each sheet going in a opposite direction adds to the structural strength of it. Not sure if Coosa has that property. As mentioned the plywood worked for 20 years and that probably wasn't coated with a resin to make it more waterproof . Might want to research that ,anyway good luck !!

Just out of curiosity, how many people/ Charters target Wally's on O ? Now compare that to Erie . There is a obvious difference and reason. The numbers don't lie ,why shove this down our throats ? Even NYS advertises differently for each Lake. Going to vote with my wallet.

Correct on the math , just got up and brain wasn't fully engaged . So you paid around 10,000 which puts my financial numbers more in perspective. Sorry to bother you with these figures on ownership after you brought it up with your 20% of "cost" and not answer your question to your liking , I did mention I have been on boats before and after the work had been done. So go ahead and cobble it ,done with this thread .

Ok , so if you paid 20,000 for your boat and had to outfit it from scratch lets do the math . 3 average riggers = 1800.00 FishHawk 800.00 12' MFD 2500.00 Radar dome 1500.00 Electric Planner reels and boards 1200.00 Rigger and Dipsy Rods 1200. Copper and lead core rods 1200.00 Auto Pilot ,3000.00 Tackle which would include rigger weights , house battery, extra wiring for gear ,tracks and holders along with misc nets Bogo grips.lures ,pliars ect at least 1,000 . That puts us at 14,200 and we have not paid for the summer slip [2,000] , winter storage [700 ] , upkeep on the engines [min. 150 a year per engine ] Insurance 750.00 and good old gas ,500 gallons min on twin inboards @ 3.50 per = 1750 and that = 4675 per year [min in my book ] So your first year you spent 18100.00 vs the 20000.00 for the boat. You must have heard people saying the actual cost of the boat is sometimes the cheapest part of fishing . Might want to check with both places mentioned here for pricing if you have not already ,anyway good luck with your bolt on's !!

How's the electrolysis with two dissimilar metals connected to each other under water ? I guess you can unhook your bonding wires with this setup. Is there anymore drag created by overlapping the stock rudder with a wider piece of corrosion creating metal ? How much time and money was needed vs having a professional upgrade done correctly ? With all the money you put into the sport , why cheap out on your steering setup ? If I was looking at a boat to buy and it had the bolt on"s I would wonder what other short cuts were taken in the upkeep and then keep walking. Do it once and do it right is how I like to roll. But as stated above ,"don't listen to other ppl" Although you did ask a question which might require listening to other people's advice.. So go ahead and do what you want it's your boat.