Larry, I have never had a problem with following seas with "Wild Hare", which has the cutout for the outboard. We have been in short fetched following seas near San Carlos Mexico, and each wave that approached us (6 feet or so, short fetched) never made it into the cockpit, so no problem. The one thing that I am concerned with is the cockpit drains that route through a rubber hose that is inside the hull. If this hose should come loose or break, the water could come into the boat. I have corks that will plug the hole at the exit point of the cockpit drain, but I plan to modify the cockpit drain plan to mimic the new M-17's that exit the cockpit water through a wet locker and out, bypassing the interior of the boat. Has anyone else modified their cockpit drains like this? I think I may have read something in the archives like this, but "Two Buck Chuck" has limited my ability to search the archives this evening. Tom M-17 #330 "Wild Hare"