Thanks for help. I believe it is a 1999, though don't have it in front of me so can't look up serial at the moment.
What makes me suspicious is when I bought the replacement head I saw a similar head on ebay that does have bridges between the cooling passages which correspond to the gasket...
I ordered a new head gasket for my 9.9A and I'm not sure if it is correct. According to the Honda marine parts lookup 12251-ZV4-610 is the correct gasket for the entire serial number range, but it has "bridges" across the the cooling channels that don't correspond to my head (see pictures). I...