something i noticed when i bought my 186 in '01 that i'm sure hasnt been addressed yet is that water can get trapped in the air space where the console sits down over the raised up portion of the deck. after a rough day on the water ,i'd found my whole area inside the wiring harness,gauges to be wet and full of what ended up being the p.e. shavings and flakes where the fire extinguisher and all other holes had been cut out. i ended up drilling 2 ea 3/8 holes at the floor level where the console sweeps up from the deck and that drained every drop of water and i never had another problem with water in the console. i pointed this out to the factory guys last mackfest but i dont know if anything has come of it being done at the factory. heck i dont even think i told the guys at merrit about this one
this air void is also good for swallowing anything you drop or works its way off the flat shelf. i had to put foam waterpipe insulation around the console to keep stuff from falling into the abyss
GGC