---

Just for comparison, my motor is mounted fully down, with the cavitation plate even with the hull bottom. This was done by my dealer probably just to reuse the existing holes. When I was buying the engine, I had not found this forum yet and did not know that it should have been mounted higher.

I actually considered moving the engine up and thus redrilling the lower holes, but decided against it. The boat performance is very good all-around and while by nature, I am a rabid optimizer, I did not want extra holes filled in the transom. It is a small boat and when you push it to the top end it can definitely get a bit loose in anything less than smooth water.

Given that your height is so close to optimal, I would just run the boat a couple of days and see if you like the performance. In my opinion, it is not worth the effort to move the engine up another 1/2" or so. I'm not a prop expert, but my guess is that you would get more out of tuning the prop selection than making that last adjustment in the height. Regardless, it is a great motor on a great hull.