2000/2001 Ski Nautique, how to access pitot holes

So I'm trying to figure out how to add a new water temp sensor to my boat, and before deciding to just say screw it and get a through hull depth/temp sender, I would like to evaluate doing an in hull depth transducer with a temp sender on the transom. I would want to use the existing pitot tube hole (since the pitot pickups are no longer used) but I cant for the life of me figure out how to access those on the inside of the hull.

I pulled the rear seat, and it looks like to get at it you have to pull the gas tank and the cover over the gas tank, which involves removing the side (comb) pad. That's an awful lot of work, I think I'd rather just drill a 2" hole.

Can anyone confirm that this is the approach to access those tubes, or tell me the shortcut way of accessing them, because I'm not finding it.

Install a short section of 1" (or 1.25") pipe (PVC will work) with hose fittings on either end, and a fitting to screw your temperature sensor into in your water pickup line for the engine cooling system between the hull pickup and filter, or drill and tap into your filter body and put the temperature sender there. The water getting sucked out of the lake is the same temperature at the transom, as long as you tap in somewhere between the hull fitting and the tranny cooler.

Yeah, I understand the options. The Perfect Pass does have a water temp gauge built into it, but you have to access it from the system menu (not real convenient).

The Faria depth/temp gauge does work with the PP sensor, but then I'd lose the PP water temp functionality (not the end of the world, I agree).

The Faria standalone water temp sensor is this flanged thing with a molded bulb in the middle that really can't be mounted the way the Humminbird sensor is mounted in a T in the water intake line (as suggested):

Faria TS0101 sensor

I was just curious if someone had accessed the rear of the boat and if there was a trick to it besides disassembling a bunch of stuff.

Often wondered on this.....I understand why a fisherman would care about water temp, but why would we care, or go to such trouble, to know a specific numerical temp on a runabout/ski boat? Is there some defined threshold at which one absolutely refuses to ski that can't just be deduced by general conditions?

In NY water is always cold, spring and fall obviously much more so, when we kick in the ....."Holy Crap that's cold, get the wetsuit.! .." Water Temp Analysis Method.....

Here in GA, however, it might be helpful to know when it reaches the boiling point.......