What is this 3” square piece under gunnel?

[billbass]

Laying on the floor and looking under the gunnel, I noticed this square plastic piece with a large hole in the middle. It’s about 3x3x1” thick. What is that for?

 

[Billv]

Deck lights

 

[Fishtales]

Lights is a good guess. Obviously for something that required a lightweight mount. Not a stock mount from what I've seen.

 

[glacierbaze]

My first thought was a re-enforcement for a 90* rod holder, but it is not strong enough, and would not require the 4 screw holes.

 

[DennisG01]

I would guess lights, too. Strange that someone would install and then purposefully remove them, though. Obviously, something WAS mounted in that hole.

Definitely not OEM, though, so we're only guessing.

 

[billbass]

This boat already has string type LED lighting. You can see the LED string in the photo. I’m attaching edited photos with the LEDs circled. Since the boat comes with this, I don’t know what other kind of lighting might have been needed.

 

[billbass]

This boat already has string type LED lighting. You can see the LED string in the photo. I’m attaching edited photos with the LEDs circled. Since the boat comes with this, I don’t know what other kind of lighting might have been needed.

 

[drbatts]

mounting area for an outlet for an electric reel maybe

 

[billbass]

My contact at GW answered the mystery! It's a bracket to hold the "engine flush fitting". I looked it up and found someone else here in the forum talked about the fitting itself

 

[billbass]

I found a little more to the mystery. My boat is just missing the ID plate. The plate is probably also precisely made to accommodate the part. See the attached picture.

 

[glacierbaze]

Yours, unfortunately, shows the lack of attention to detail that we see all too often below the shiny surface. How many of us would have mounted that block on top of the aluminum bracket, leaving a gap, and a less solid mount than a flush fit would have been?

 

[Punchline Cap]

Don’t bother hooking it up, it’s more of a hassle to use that then to directly connect a hose to the outboard.

 

[Timbo]

Laying on the floor and looking under the gunnel, I noticed this square plastic piece with a large hole in the middle. It’s about 3x3x1” thick. What is that for?

My main circuit breaker is attached to that piece on a 282

 

[billbass]

My main circuit breaker is attached to that piece on a 282

Grady White told me that this solid piece of plastic is a storage place for the water hose connector used on the outboard motor. You’re saying your main circuit breaker is attached to this? Maybe on certain boats the circuit breaker box or panel was somehow a convenient location for this fixture to hold the water hose connector.