My Two Cents
I am the proud owner of a 1979 H25 ("Whisper"). Her port-of-call is Lake St Clair (referred to as the littlest of the Great Lakes with a nasty disposition. I am totally happy with her performance and interior comfort. However, like you and most other 25' owners, feel that the cockpit is somewhat cramped. Most of this is due to the fact that the tiller takes up so much room and I have been planning on shortening it but just never got around to it. Thanks to Sam of Atlanta, who has confirmed my estimate of how much to remove, I will probably accomplish that this spring. I have made many changes to mine both for safety and convenience. Some of the safety related aspects (I mostly single hand) are: added a roller furler; ran all halyards back to the cockpit. Convenience changes include: cutting a hole in the aft lazaret tray to permit access to the cockpit drain line and the motor mount bolts; main sheet traveller assembly to permit easy adjustment under load; starboard lazaret cover (underside of lid) storage of spare dock lines, etc. As far as auxilliary power goes, I have never heard of an inboard source. I can not imagine where it would fit or, even more important, how you would work on it once it was there. I have a Mercury 9.9 and am fairly happy with it.Would suggest looking under owner's comments in this web for pros & cons of the 25.