Believe it or not, that 35 is surprisingly fuel efficient. I've taken it out three times, and still have about 2 gallons of fuel left in the tank. This is like my other boat.

In my other boat, the bigger motor gets much better fuel economy than the little 15 HP, probably because the smaller motor is constantly running wide open, whereas the larger motor jumps the boat up on plane in a few seconds, and then sips fuel the rest of the time.

But even so, I think your advice is good. The rear deck will be the next project. After that, I'll probably go ahead and extend the front deck back to the middle bunk, and add storage underneath. That way, I can put both the trolling and the starting batteries under there, out of sight, and out of the sun.

Thanks!

-TH