Hi Dean. You must be psychic. I was just thinking about you.How's the sub coming along.On the splash shield, the hinged plates can't go past the point as shown because of the way I imagined the little SS hinges. Like I said a little earlier, the sketch is just a "concept " thing. Mostly to show the innertube. Like most of my drawings, when I actually get to cutting and welding stuff, the little details get worked out. On this particular idea, you'll notice the hatch hinge isn't shown.....the shield would need to encompass the hinge.On your boat......did you get your motor problem worked out ?You had mentioned you may be looking at adding some syntactic foam for additional buoyancy reserve.Is there any stuff you could replace with aluminum to shave a little weight off ?I know it's been a tough winter up there. Hope all is well with you and family.Will we see you guys in Florida ? You can come and stay at my house in Daytona if you'd like. It's a bit of a drive to FT. Pierce, but not too bad.Frank D.