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I had lots of discussion about this years ago. Although some will argue with me, I will say you can't mount that Merc without modification. Your hull has the holes in it from the older style engines. They will not match the newer engines. Here are some choices: (1) Buy a jack plate and re-drill the jack plate where it bolts to the hull. Then bolt the Merc right on the jack plate. (2)Use lag bolts and bolt the engine into the transom and ignore the existing lower holes in the boat (bad idea to use lag bolts - but some will argue that). (3)...and this is Boston Whalers idea... use the lower bolt holes on the engine. Drill new holes in the transom. Cut an access plate into the hull below the splash well. Remove the foam and bolt onto the new mounting holes you just made. I don't like this idea either. (4) Lastly, buy a Yamaha or Suzuki. Both of these engines retained the old "blind holes" in the engine mount. These two lower holes are threaded and designed to have the bolt run from the inside of the hull/transom out to the engine bracket. These blind holes were kept in their engine bracket over the years. They line up with the old style engine brackets and your transom holes. As far as I know only the Yamaha and Suzuki have these mounting holes.

I bought the Yamaha just for this reason. It was a direct bolt on to my old transom (1962). If you want to keep from damaging the hull and assuming you don't want to buy a new engine, I suggest considering very strongly the use of a jack plate (do a google search if you're not familiar with them). I have a ton of experience trying to solve this problem. Feel free to contact me direct for any help.