Thanks for your recommendations. Still deciding what to do. I'm in NJ and this will be a winter project so I still have time to decide. I'm definitely filling in the transom. I prefer not to re-power as my 125 Mercury, even though I purchased it new in 2002 it has only about 200 hours on it and runs great. When I do get to the point to re-power I want the bracket I use to be able to accommodate maybe a 150 Hp.