I was VERY happy at the way our plates are mounted, and that I can (and do) inspect them every time we do a good cleaning or any yard work. Even at that we had the one plate go bad. I only had one (1) nut that I had to dig out of a thin sheet of FRP. Other than that, as boat projects go, it was easy.
I just got the last one off and sent them off to be duplicated.
By the way, Jill and I are planning on heading your way in 2014. We need to stop by for some work.
Greg
Photo below, over easy, the backside of all the plates.....