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FWIW, I switched to Zerex G05 a couple years ago. It is a light amber color - not green, orange, pink, or red. It's a Heavy Duty ethylene glycol type antifreeze, with HOA for corrosion protection, and with anti-cavitation additives that are helpful for the high compression vibrations experienced by diesel engines. The anti-cavitation would be critically important for engines with sleeved cylinders, but I do not think that any of Universal's engines have that. I'm not going to claim it's the only one to use, or even the best one. It's just another alternative that you might want to check into.

Breaking : The bottom line is that Edson screwed up in their design of the SS shifter.  If they has just copied the "Rubber Ducky" design into SS they would have been OK!!   The new SS design just had tooo much forward curve in it and it was a bit taller !!!

In my opinion Edson did nothing wrong. It was an incorrect installation by the Catalina Factory. My fix for it is described here: https://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,9151.msg69984.html#msg69984

I'm going to second someone else's suggestion to have this done professionally. It's not the kind of thing a first-timer should do.

As already mentioned, you must be very careful with epoxy because making too much at one time, or applying it into a deep, insulated cavity, will cause overheating. At the least, you'll have bubbles from boiling in your repair. At worst, you could have a fire.

Minimizing heat buildup by adding your epoxy a little at a time, with curing in between, can be equally problematic due to amine blushing which will prevent adhesion between the layers. The net effect is like plywood where the plies have delaminated from each other - a mushy, flexible laminate, which may be just the epoxy version of what you have now.

Polyester chemistry has its own problems. To get full cure, you often need an oxygen-free environment, so you may need vacuum bags. Polyester odors are pretty severe. I have no experience with polyester, so that's all I know.

I've done a couple epoxy repairs before - one was just a few layers of cloth laminate in a small fishing boat's rotted storage cabinet, which is where I learned about overheating and adhesion problems due to amine blush. (West System has TERRIBLE amine blush - stay away from it.) The second time (on my prior sailboat) I hollowed out some rotted core and filled with about 1/2" thick blush-free epoxy, it went much better. (I used https://www.epoxyusa.com/category_s/3.htm) But it was a tiny job compared to yours, and through my "vast experience" I've learned that anything larger than this would likely be beyond my capability.

If warren can't help You might even consider contacting Gerry Douglas.

A thought

FYI, Gerry Douglas has retired.

Service bulletin attached.

The shift cable and pedestal control must allow the transmission shift arm to
move from the neutral position into the forward or reverse engagement a MINIMUM
of 1.37 inches (35mm) when the outermost ball joint attachment hole is used on
the shift arm, or 1.18 inches (30mm) when the inner is used. Use of the inner
attachment hole is preferred (Ref. Illustration).

Failure to properly adjust the shift arm and cable to produce the MINIMUM
shift arm travel required for clutch engagement will result in clutch slippage
and eventual failure.

I've posted previously that my boat (and others I am aware of) did not have sufficient travel to shift reliably into forward because the shift arm was not adjusted to take into account the fact that the transmission is tilted to be parallel with the shaft. (I realize that this may be off-topic since OP is complaining about trouble shifting into reverse.) The previous owner of my boat had just rebuilt the transmission, and this is apparently what led to his transmission failure that required rebuilding. The clutch still slipped on the newly rebuilt transmission until I discovered this root cause.

Correcting the issue at the transmission lever may avoid the need for some of you to bend your nice cast stainless shift lever.

Thanks, I'm going to look into those glue-on rings for the bow. My dinghy is inflatable with a 5hp Honda, so I'm safely under the weight limit of my davits. Did you install the rings or were they already there?

All the rings came with the boat. If you add them yourself, research adhesives very carefully. It must be done properly or you will have a serious failure. You need to be sure you have the right stuff for your material (Hypalon or PVC) and prep the surface properly.

My off-brand dinghy with inflatable floor (about 90 lb empty weight) has stainless lifting rings glued to the insides of the side tubes, as well as a stainless lifting handle+ring glued to the outside on the bow. I created a three-way harness that connects all three to a single lifting point for the forward area, and an additional two-way harness that connects the lifting eyes on the inside of the transom (which has a 28 lb 2.5 hp Suzuki motor). The weight is pretty well distributed this way.

My davits are similar to yours and have a 150 lb weight limit for each davit. Make sure you are not exceeding the limit for your davits.

Oh they do gelcoat and fiberglass repair. They also paint boats, this is why they wont allow me to have my painter come in and paint the boat. I know that I can't afford to have a marina paint the boat. I am left with rolling and tipping the upper part of the hull. They will allow you to roll and tip just not spray.

Awlgrip is a 2-part isocyanate that requires supplied air. It really is not a safe product for a DIYer to spray. It's possible that the yard does not want the liability associated with DIYers potentially cutting corners on safety, so they ban all spraying - both DIYers and 3rd party guys.

I know a couple body shop guys whose bosses did not value their safety and made them spray 2-part clearcoats with organic respirators because they were too cheap to get supplied air in their shop. They both quickly became sensitized and had to leave the business because once you're sensitized your airways will close up if you're anywhere near them. I also know a couple of R&D technicians at DuPont who were sensitized and had the same issue. I paint my own boat's bottom, but I wouldn't mess with the 2-part urethanes.

The Craftsman stud finder I used to have had 6 or 8 LEDs that indicated the capacitance level. It was good enough to do moisture gradients (and find studs). If you have a cheaper one with only one light it might not be as helpful.

I haven't found any threads on the forum about this particular issue (if it is one).  But I've found others about damaged cockpit soles due to leaking pedestals.

I usually only use this site for C34-specific information. For general sailing and maintenance information, including things like moisture detection, I use Sailnet. Here are some posts of mine on the topic starting in 2010:

https://www.sailnet.com/threads/moisture-meters.62766/#post-582990
https://www.sailnet.com/threads/moisture-meters-are-not-capacitance-meters-or-radio-transceivers.81605/#post-805660
https://www.sailnet.com/threads/moisture-meter-recomendations.212833/page-2#post-3017130
https://www.sailnet.com/threads/low-cost-general-tools-moisture-meter.60824/#post-723423

Note that I mentioned using a capacitive stud finder, something that you may already have in your tool box.

Who's who on Sailnet:
TakeFive is me
boatpoker is Wallace Gouk, the surveyor whose site I linked in my prior post. Note that he started mentioning his use of the Ryobi meter around 2021, over 10 years after I posted about my tests with it.
PDQaltair is Drew Frye, who does pretty much all the testing for Practical Sailor magazine. His opinions hold a lot of weight.

You could always test cockpit sole with a moisture meter. While they can be inaccurate in some uses, it might give a clue if the is soft enough to cause your perceived flex.

I thought of that but the meters are $700+.. not sure where I would get one.

$700 is ridiculous. Because Electrophysics CT100 was the first pinless one decades ago, they became a de facto standard for marine surveyors, with an inflated price to continue production at such a low volume. There are many different ones out there now for much less, and people have tested them, including me. Many are junk (stay away from General Tools, which is a random number genarator). The best one out there was the Ryobi E49MM01, previously sold at Home Depot for $40. Years ago I had bought one at HD and returned it (unused) because I figured I didn't need it right away and could buy it again when I need it. BIG MISTAKE. About 10 years ago some odd licensing agreement happened with Lowes that caused Ryobi to stop selling their small tools at HD, and the pinless meter was not picked up by Lowes. It was not available anywhere in the US, but reportedly remained available in Canada and elsewhere. Ryobi has since started selling at HD again, but neither HD or Lowes has any model of Ryobi pinless meter. I searched for it for a few years at both locations, Amazon, and elsewhere. Nothing. Eventually I had a slight leak on a chainplate, so I wanted the Ryobi so I could check for moisture intrusion while the chainplate was pulled. (As you've surmised, measuring near any metal parts causes false positives because the meter is measuring capacitance, which is through the roof for metal parts.) I found one on ebay for $35, and I recommend it for others:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=ryobi+pinless+moisture+meter+E49MM01

This surveyor has started using the Ryobi instead of his old Electrophysics CT100. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for his comments about switching to the Ryobi:
http://www.pcmarinesurveys.com/Moisture%20meter%20mythology.htm

I asked the guy to provide interpretations of his data from his Ryobi (hardwood setting) vs. the CT100. He never posted the Ryobi numbers on his website, but I captured them in a comparative table (attached).

As I previously mentioned to Kyle on Facebook, I have purchased the JMP all-bronze pump and will be installing it in the near future. At some point I'll provide an update on how it's working.

I plan to inspect the current Sherwood G908 to ensure there's no rust, and if everything looks good I will keep it as an emergency spare. But I will no longer have to worry about iron rust causing the bearings to seize and break my cam shaft.

I will have to transfer my elbow fittings over from the Sherwood pump to the JMP. What is the preferred thread treatment for this? Is Teflon tape OK, or is there some liquid pipe dope that is preferred? I've always used Teflon tape for everything, but want to be sure to follow best practices for this critical application.

Westerbeke's spec for maximum RPM of the M35B is 3000. You should achieve it underway in forward, or you may be over -propped.

A lot depends on what kind of water you are in. I got tired of seeing the significant loss of effectiveness of multi-season paints after the first year. When I upgraded to this boat I threw in the towel and went with an inexpensive single-season ablative. It's $90/gallon, and I need about 1-1/3 gallons per season. So I just put on one thin coat every year. I haul out every winter, so it's part of the springtime prep.

https://www.go2marine.com/international-paint-proguard-ablative-antifouling-paint-gallon-blue-black-red

I used to sand the whole bottom diligently every year, but the last couple years I just do a hard scrub along the waterline to get rid of any algae stain, let it dry, and put on the paint. (It helps to have a good power-wash at haulout.) It's a half-day of work. I see no signs of paint failure anywhere on the bottom.

Glad you found your answer.

I can't help but think of the old Yogi Berra quote: "When you get to the fork in the road, take it." 🤣