If the boat is only going to see fresh water I would use brass freeze plugs and not worry about anything else. The engine in my boat has brass freeze plugs and nothing else special and has been fine for 10 years. If you use aluminum heads I would recommend MLS style head gaskets. My engine is blown so that has some impact but I could not keep the heads sealed until I started using Cometic MLS head gaskets. The difference in growth rate iron vs aluminum with cold lake water keeping the block cold had the heads skating around so the heads wouldn't stay sealed with conventional gaskets. Fwiw I drain the block after every use.
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