First drive impressions and questions

[bobo4030]

Just took my first ride in my Alumacraft Classic 165 (Big) tiller with a Mercury 60 hp 4 stroke. Prop is a 10 5/8- 12 pitch 4 blade Spitfire. The motor is mounted in the center hole of 5 positions.

I love the rig. The Terrova 80 with I-Pilot was a great choice. With everyone's help on WC, I mounted the Terrova and the Mercury Smartcraft tach. The tach provides so much important information, it's ridiculous.

After an hour, I couldn't resist a quick top speed run? Just me, 10 gallons of gas and rigged to fish I hit 34 mph (gps) at 6250 rpm. On plane, there is a huge amount of water being sprayed 5 feet into the air on both sides of the lower unit, adjacent to the transom.
Mercury performance bulletins suggest the motor to be mounted in bolt hole #2. At speed, the cavitation? plate appears to be about 2 inches under water. From what I've read here, that's too deep.

Questions:
Will the addition of another passenger and his gear(maybe 300 lbs) drop the rpm into the factory WOT rpm range of 5500-6000?
Do I need to raise the motor to get the most performance and efficiency? The boat handles fine, but all that water at the transom seems wrong.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rick