I've only had my 14 for a month or so and I already wish I had a 18 for more storage space to carry more crap.
You'll be suprised what you can actually do with a 14-48. I've owned mine for many years, when I changed it over from a duck boat to a bowfishing rig I had to give a alot of thought. I've looked at lots of picture how some folks layed out their boats 14 to 16 footers, some I've notice how much wasted space wasn't used or how they had to step over everything (batteries, fish barrel, genny, coolers & etc.) All this made me really think about the lay out of my boat, w/o butchering it up too badly. All my benches were left in for 2 reasons, (1) the boat was designed by the manufacture that way structural reason, and a place to park your butt on. I've seen too many boats were butched and incorrectly put together w/o replacing the benches with more bows in its place & will give the boat too much flex & twist. I've seen this on duck boats as well as bowfishing rigs. Personally its a death wish waiting to happen. I laugh at some that say "I took my benches out and NOT replaced anything in its place and does just fine."
Talk with the boat manufacture and see what they have to say about removing benches and NOT replacing them with more bows
you'll be suprise by their answer. By leaving the benches in you can utilize the place you want by careful thinking it all out. I fish 2 people from my boat we both have no problem moving from one end of the boat to the other side.
I remove 33" of my rear bench, I built a floor from aluminium were my batteries & my converter box sits, My cranking battery is located in the very stren on the left of my boat.
My fish barrel mounts in a Kington 3/4" seat pedestal base mounted in the center of my 1st bench, on the bottom of the fish barrel is a seat pedstal base pin bolted to the bottom of the fish barrel with square washer on the inside of the barrel. I've had a 100lbs plus of fish in the barrel. I'm no tournament fisher I fish for fun only. I can move around from the bow to the stren w/o any problem, I'm 6' 2" tall, 254lbs & 53yrs old. I took careful planning to lay this boat out with out very little butchering of my boat. I had a sheet metal shop make my new bench tops (both) from aliuminum 65.00 each I just cut them to size. I sprayed on a bedliner on them, and have quick release fasteners to hold the benches down to the aluminuim frames I built. This way I can acess my batteries very quickly, I have adequate storage under my flush mount deck ( fuses, extra prop's troller & outboard, tool kit, extra outboard oil, qt 10-30 oil for genny, 1 gal gas can for genny, life jackest, extra towels) I've had more compliments on this boat how I layed everything out, and some say I've wouldnt never put that much work or thought into a 14-48, I'd would of bought a bigger boat. My 14-48 has sentimental value, and its been my hand for over 25 yrs its a perfect example how a small boat can use what space it has and still have the room to move around quite easy. This boat sits extremely well on the water, I get stopped everytime I'm on the water by other bowfishing rigs checking out how I layed this boat out.
Time & Planning I tell everyone, take your time putting it together, think out every thing balance & weight limit of your boat. Use little wood as possible, aluminuim, most of the add-on's are from aluminuim. If you notice I run 1 battery 31 series for the lights, 1 battery for my troller 31 series with 2 Powermax 55amp Converters, & a 2500W Inverter Genny w/2200W work watts. I have the both of best worlds running silent for a while and keeping my batteries charge when needed, I run a 3 bank on-board charger when the boat isnt in use so my batteries are fully charged. Again you can have the space you need with a small boat, its just carefully thinking it all out. Dont rush it.
without the fish barrel in
with the fish barrel in
