Boat seats

[The Quadfather]

Silly question here.... but I am putting two seats in my 14 ft. Lund. These are the kind that swivel and the back folds down. Of course the rear seat is where it is obviously. Do people put the second seat on the bow bench? Or the middle bench? I mean the bow bench has enough room in front of it to accomodate both you feat, but they would be pretty much in a straight forward position without a much room for movement.

Is it normal to put the second seat across the middle bench? Of course I realize one on bow one on stern would probably make a nice weight distribution.

Chris

[A9]

I would only put your seat on your seat where you plan to man the motor...Don't put another one on...Just get some seat cushions and you'll be good..
Cause otherwise they take up a lot of space and you gotta make sure they are at the right section so they boat has the weight distributed evenly and what not...

[jmay]

I have a 14' deep V Triton with 3 benchs. In the middle I put my second seat. If a average sized adult sits in the front, the boat will likely have planeing issues since tiller motors do not trim.

[hewesfisher]

I'd agree with Sam if it was a smaller boat, but not on a 14 footer. I had a 14' Hewescraft open fisherman (3 bench seats) that was outfitted with two swivel seats - one at the "helm" position and one on the opposite side on the center bench. That's what my recommendation would be. Before mouting seats, you should first decide it's exact position based on how you normally fish and/or travel on the water. On my old boat, the center bench swivel seat was in the right spot for two adults of the same weight, but with my wife on board, it wasn't trimmed right - the seat needed to be moved more to the port (left) side. It also didn't help that she was enough lighter that I couldn't trim the motor enough (6 manual trim positions) to keep from porposing unless she moved forward of centert. She usually rode on the bow seat if we were on a smaller lake.

I really enjoyed having the permanent swivel seats, they made our fishing trips more enjoyable.

[gpc]

In all the boats I owned/been in if you only have 2 people you sit one in the bow and a driver. My old boat had seats set up in that way and once you get used to it there isnt a problem. Thats how I would do it but the other guys who resonded to this thread make some good points too. Remember with a seat in the bow it takes a way from your visual while driving. The other thing with putting the seat in the middle it will be alot harder to reach something in the front of the boat, where as with the seat up front you can hand things back and forth as simple as both the fisherman reaching as opposed to someone having to stand up a grab something from the bow

[skeeter bassin]

I also have a 14'er. I have both my seats on slides so they can be adjusted from port to starbird, depending on if I want to run the motor left or right handed. This comes in handy with not knowing who will be fishing with me when I go out. If it is my 35 lb son or my 240 lb brother. Makes it much easier to set the weight distribution. As for accessing gear, just one of the hassles I put up with.