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I was looking at my Montauk this afternoon. It has a modern 1993 Mercury 90 HP mounted on it just as danedg's motor is mounted on his Nauset. My boat originally had a Johnson on it mounted using the blind holes.

When the boat was repowered in 1993 the installer used the SECOND set of upper bolt holes and then used the top set of lower bolt holes. This results in the motor mounted 3/4" - 7/8" above the transom, which is as low as I would ever mount it.

To clear the splashwell the installer angled the lower mounting bolts upward at an angle. This works fine but looks less than perfect. The lower washers are well above the bottom of the splashwell.

Three different things could have been done differently:

- The lower bolt holes could have been drilled with less of an angle and still made it into the splashwell.

- The lower bolt holes could have been drilled perfectly perpendicular to the transom and the lower washers could have had some of them cut or ground off to produce a flat edge that would nest in the bottom of the splashwell.

- The lower bolt holes could have been drilled perpendicular to the transom but 3/4" higher. Full washers could then have been used but the third set of upper holes would have to have been used resulting in the motor 1-1/2" above the transom.

Either of those three scenarios would also be satisfactory to me. A good prop like the Stiletto Advantage I would have no trouble at all at the higher "two holes up" mounting position.