Timing Mallory distributor...

Had the carb rebuilt last week. During the water test, my coil failed. Pulled one from old Ford to verify. Replaced coil. During the process, I discovered the begining of play in the distributor. Replaced it with Mallory Breakerless from DIM.
Boat runs smoother, more quiet, less RPM's with more top speed, but lacks the hole shot I had with the old junk. The distributor has auto-advancing guts. Normally I would just "time" this issue away. I can't get anywhere near the degrees of timing achievable prior to the new parts. I used to run 10 BTC. Engine was set to TDC and dropped distributor in over #1.
Timing issue, or time for some high end spark plugs to match the new spark?

10 degrees must be at idle? Try timing it at ~2800rpms and you should time it to around 30-34 degrees. This will probably work better.

PCM book says to time the engine at @600RPM? Isn't 2800RPM "power" timing- which the book says not to do? I'm all for breaking some rules, but have never had to revert from the stock recommendation before...

Also it idles with a dead miss. The RPM jump to 1500 or more after pulling a rider. It stalled on me pulling into the dock. None of this has ever happened with my old junk. I want my points back. Anyone know where to get an old school distributor? No one within 3 hours of me can even find it.