OOOOOOOOK.... so I"m back.
We went on vacation, and after a week in Florida, I thought I'd spend a day on a small lake (large pond?) near the house, see if the boat leaks anywhere, run it through it's paces. ... 3 hours tied to a dock with a boat that won't start (Even with Jumping the Solenoid) ... and I took it to the pro's to let them deal with it.
And i'm so very glad I did.... saved my motor.
The motor I have has the VRO system. I did my research, put regular (non-oil) gas in the tank, and .....
I get to the shop, he pops the cowling off the outboard, and the previous owner (long story about THAT guy) had removed the VRO system from the boat, and neglected to tell me about it when I bought it.
Had that motor have started, I'd have been running it with no oil

... at least for a few minutes anyways.
But to the topic at hand.. apparently the wiring system was so 'engineered' that it wasnt worth trying to trace the short. It was faster and cheaper in the long run to just rewire it from control to motor, and so they did. Motor cranks up like it was meant to and (after they rebuilt the carbs and flushed the fuel system) the motor runs like melted butter!
Now... on to fix... well.... everything else!!