Bear with me here.... I'm repowering my boat. It currently has Mercury 250EFI 2-strokes on it that are XXL or 30" shafts. They props are pretty deep in relation to the bottom of the hull. I'm wondering if I could put 25's on there. The obvious is that the propshafts would be 5" higher... I'm wondering if anyone has ever done it. It surely can be done.... but the boat runs really well now and I don't want to phuck that up. LOL
I'm trying to put the aluminum V8 300 XS engines on there so I can stay with the old school gauges and use my current controls, but that engine does not come in the 30" model. The only one that they have in the 30" is the 250XS.

I cant remember the shaft length when I repowered (300XS) but they look like 30"
And as I remember the 300XS were wider than the 250's that were on the boat, I discovered that the hard way

1997 CC remake

the newer verado boats had a different bracket
my old boat now has twin 400 v10
runs close to 80

Do you currently have any holes lower in your mounting brackets? If you can drop the 25" motors even a couple of inches you will probably be fine. Worst case you can install some jack plates.
4″ Setback Action Series Jack Plate - Bob's Machine

The 2-stroke 250's that are on there now are mounted with the top holes...so they are as low as they can be. I ordered the Merc 250 XS Pro 4-stroke engines. They should run forever!

...rigged ALL those cc boats with 25 inch shaft motors, not 30's. start with proper bracket installation height, bolt the engines & steering on, and go.

Interesting... Mine has the original 1999 250 EFI 2-strokes on it and they are definitely 30's

the Doller boat that’ was the last OH before cig deal ran 63-4… was the best of the lot

Craig, will your boat get on plane on one motor? Have you thought about triples? Aside from the "3 headaches" (strong argument, I get it)...
...but if you can't get home 'speedily' in case of failure on one motor, would 3 smaller engines be a cheaper and better option? It would definitely be cooler.

Just thinking out loud, as there were 2 or 3 KW PR large CC boats that came in with 1 motor tilted up.

With the new engine choice, will you get a joystick control option?

No, No and No... LOL Say my name...... OldSchool!!!
I'm sticking with twins... My need for speed has been moved from boating to "other things". The boat will run in the 60's and that's all we need, other than pushing the button and having them start every time!