I bought a 14 ft livingston this past summer, with a 35 hp johnson and a 5hp kicker. It's the larger of the 14 ft models I've seen. It's rating is for a 40hp remote, and 50hp with twins.
the 35 is more than enough to push it for now, however with just me in the boat, it is near impossible to see anything from the back of the boat until it's up on a plane in smooth water. For this reason, and for comfort, I want to put a console in it, as well as some other modifications (downrigger mounts, and potentially a flat deck in the front.
I'm stuck in between a few ideas on this boat.. I like the center console look, because I'd rather be standing, or atleast kneeling while operating a boat, however with the livingston, it seems like to make a console raised up very high would be raising the center of gravity unnecessarily compared with most of the smaller boat consoles I've seen.. At the same time, the console that is available on livingstons website is more raised up than the livingston consoles I've actually seen on them in person and seems to be a pretty comfortable height. That also takes up a large amount of space in the boat though..
The other option I've seen is the enclosed front with a windshield, that in some ways would be a lot easier to build.. and would leave the entire rear of the boat open...
I do a lot of crabbing and salmon fishing, this past summer, our biggest issue was on the days where we would have to bring the pots in or take them out, with 6 crab pots in the boat theres not a lot of space for anything else, because there's really no good flat spot to stack them in this boat.. so some flat deck space somewhere in the boat is going to be needed to stack the traps. OR I've also though about making a raised platform over where the back cross bench is, extending over the motors.. similar to the platforms on flats boats, except it would just have a rack for setting the crab pots, and be able to strap them down.. any opinions on this?
Another option I've considered, is to deck over the entire boat, and then put a railing around it, with a console set into one of the hulls, similar to how a bass boat is laid out.
I'm in college right now, and don't have a ton of time to actually start working on the boat until May, but when May comes, I want to have a set plan to get started so I don't waste any time not being out on the water. So basically just looking for input, suggestions, opinions, experience etc. to help me make a decision.
the 35 is more than enough to push it for now, however with just me in the boat, it is near impossible to see anything from the back of the boat until it's up on a plane in smooth water. For this reason, and for comfort, I want to put a console in it, as well as some other modifications (downrigger mounts, and potentially a flat deck in the front.
I'm stuck in between a few ideas on this boat.. I like the center console look, because I'd rather be standing, or atleast kneeling while operating a boat, however with the livingston, it seems like to make a console raised up very high would be raising the center of gravity unnecessarily compared with most of the smaller boat consoles I've seen.. At the same time, the console that is available on livingstons website is more raised up than the livingston consoles I've actually seen on them in person and seems to be a pretty comfortable height. That also takes up a large amount of space in the boat though..
The other option I've seen is the enclosed front with a windshield, that in some ways would be a lot easier to build.. and would leave the entire rear of the boat open...
I do a lot of crabbing and salmon fishing, this past summer, our biggest issue was on the days where we would have to bring the pots in or take them out, with 6 crab pots in the boat theres not a lot of space for anything else, because there's really no good flat spot to stack them in this boat.. so some flat deck space somewhere in the boat is going to be needed to stack the traps. OR I've also though about making a raised platform over where the back cross bench is, extending over the motors.. similar to the platforms on flats boats, except it would just have a rack for setting the crab pots, and be able to strap them down.. any opinions on this?
Another option I've considered, is to deck over the entire boat, and then put a railing around it, with a console set into one of the hulls, similar to how a bass boat is laid out.
I'm in college right now, and don't have a ton of time to actually start working on the boat until May, but when May comes, I want to have a set plan to get started so I don't waste any time not being out on the water. So basically just looking for input, suggestions, opinions, experience etc. to help me make a decision.