Where to place my new steering console?

[Milemaker13]

I have a 14' smokercraft v- hull fishing boat and a new aluminum stering console. I'm looking for advice on how far forward to go with it. I was planning on going right about half way to the bow.

The cable I ordered is too long (D'Oh! ) for that location. When I was mocking it up, I came across the idea of pushing it farther forward and possibly sti using my cable.

How far is too far?

 

[jbcurt00]

And is there anyway to accomplish what you want as a steering station & retain the structural aspects of the bench seat?

You probably are building back some sort of a box, do you intend to put it back in the same or roughly the same place?

And are you removing only 1 side of the split bench?..

Same boat, right?

Many time's it's best to start a boat Topic over in the resto forum and put all your questions there. If I had noticed this Topic, I wouldn't have asked about putting the console in roughly the same place as the bench you want to remove...

 

[Watermann]

Some pictures and dimensions of the boat would help out a whole bunch. The problem with going too far forward is that in rough water you'll get beat up more and it could become unstable. What I would do if you're close enough to a lake is launch the boat, get in it and sit in a portable chair to see where if feels best. Be careful though and watch for flexing of the hull. You may want to add some bracing to take up the integrity lost by removing the seat. Then there's the loss of the flotation foam. These smaller boats are built the way they are for a reason.