Hello Lance, How is your wife doing? God Bless you and your family for the courage that you have! Did you end up selling the Pirata? I am looking at converting my 1988 Saltare to a V Drive as well. I have a 496 BBC that I am using for the power plant and I was wondering how you determine what kind of a V Drive unit to go with. My local Supra dealer in Crystal Lake, IL just provided me with an email address to Skier's Choice to see if they can help. I understand that I am going to have to beef up the stringers to hold this beast in place and add some bushings to help keep her from vibrating the motor mounts out of the wood. My Saltare only has 310 hours on her so she should look real nice when I am finished. Who did you see for design experience? I just looked at the SE450 at the boat show and I took a ton of pictures. I am going to design a playpen and surround seating similar to these new boats, but I am going to make sure that I have easy access to the motor and the v drive unit for maintenance purposes. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you, -Bob