Holiday Update . . .
I hope everyone is having an enjoyable Holiday season. We hosted Christmas and the kids/grandkids have been staying with us for the week.
Fiberglassing has been on hold while the family is here to avoid the possibility of fumes in the house. Meanwhile . . .
1) I have been continuing to clean-up the outdrives of the 'old' motors, using the non-caustic paint remover. It works pretty well.
2) I also have looked into the engine choice and the Dometic Seastar Optimus stuff, which is all the high-tech electronic controls the the boat will have. As I gather information it looks like the Suzuki motors may be the easiest to integrate. I was leaning towards Mercury, but I keep running into potential gotchas on the compatibility of Mercury controls with the latest & greatest Optimus components. It seems to me that Mercury is more geared to the OEM market with their JPO, and not as easy to deal with in the aftermarket. (
let me know if I have the wrong impression 
)
If I went with Yamaha, it would be all the Helm Master EX stuff. Pricing and convenience will tell the story.
One nice thing I found was that Optimus has a Bill-of-Material generator on their website, which has been helpful in understanding the components needed and the cost.
3) I'll be interested to see how the final 2025 figures on the boat market look. It seems that things have slowed down for boat sales in general, and I'll be interested to see how the outboard figures look. (hoping to get a good deal on the engines, which ever brand I choose).
4) My project schedule is sliding a bit, given the winter temperatures. I was originally hoping to be sending the boat off for re-power in the Feb/March time frame, but that may be more like April.
Anyway, I'll be back at it doing the fiberglassing after New Years.
Wishing everyone a happy & safe 2026.
