I have boat questions...

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These aren't really welding questions, but I know some of y'all build boats or otherwise know about boat stuff. I have a sort of goofy, "for ****s and giggles", project I'm going to start on soon - weather, time, and all else allowing... Gas powered kayak. I have an extra kayak, a 9 foot sit-in, that's going to be the starting hull.I'm going to cut out a section of the... "deck"(?) behind the seat, make an aluminum or SS frame to mount the engine in, bolt that through the hull (and "glue" it with RTV), and I THINK I'm going to go from the crankshaft, then to a U joint, prop shaft, a pillow block bearing, then a shaft seal, then a propeller. The motor I have is an electric start Chinese GX390 knock-off off a spare genset. I figure if that works, I'll get something with a better power/weight ratio (thinking 125cc 2 stroke, ~30hp). As it is, I'm not worried about weight. With a little over 200 pounds (me and a paddle) in the kayak it draws around 2 inches of water and sits level - would sit better with more weight aft to bring the bow up a bit. I'm going to have a foot throttle for now and steer with a paddle. If it works well, I'll switch to a foot operated rudder and a hand throttle OR a steering wheel and keep the foot throttle.My questions - Stuffing box or mechanical seal?Should I run straight pipe wet exhaust, dry exhaust with a muffler, or muffler then wet exhaust.Oh, and same question for a 125cc 2 stroke - could I even run a 2 stroke like that with a wet exhaust (without a huge hassle trying to tune thr exhaust or whatever)Last edited by 52 Ford; 4 Hours Ago at 11:37 PM.