Sorry for the constant bumping of this thread with updates but alas... I feel as if I'm close again. This morning's update:
Got the fuel leak contained by draining the bowl plug, removing the gas line from the top back of the carb and spraying sea foam in it. Of course, the middle carb started doing the same, so I preemptively struck and sprayed them all. No more fuel leaks (at least for the time being). She fires right up from cold now (used to take two or three turns) and sounds good. In neutral, the throttle is smooth and responsive but the idle is still a little high at 1100. She starts right around where it should at 800-900 and, within 30 seconds or so builds up to 1100. In comparing linkage photos (before, after and parts breakdown), they're all the same so I think it's time to move on to throttle adjustment. I'm wondering if that's why the boat's not getting to full speed. I haven't made any adjustments to it, but if you recall (from a month ago when I started this lol) I had someone else tear into the carbs originally. He may very well have screwed with it. In any event, it's good for me to break out the service manual once more and confirm.