New poster, question about cooler placement

Long time lurker. I have an old Sea Nymph project boat I finally decided not to redo so I just bought a slightly used 2015 Tracker V-14 to use for my flats areas right near my house. Got a great deal because it had a few hours on it. Its underpowered with only a 5hp Honda, but I can upgrade that later if I want. Lots of extras including trolling motor, batteries, portable live well, nice seats, cover, motor dolly, etc...

I've got a few things I need to do to it. It will be moored in the canal behind my house on the west coast of Fl, north of Tampa. I've bookmarked some really good articles from this forum on what I need to do to keep it in saltwater. Lots of great resources here. I also need to add a bilge pump.

After getting it ready for saltwater mooring the next project will be trying to figure out where to put the fish cooler. Not a lot of room unless I remove one of the bench seats or cut into the seat and insert a small cooler. Has anyone ever cut out a part of a bench to drop/insert a cooler into it? and if so, do you have pics? I tried searching but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. Not sure I want to remove a bench on a new boat, but I may go that route.

Now to figure out what to do with the old gutted sea nymph 12r. My wife wants me to make it into an outdoor sofa/bed or planter. :shock:

Mr. Reel, :WELCOME: to Tin Boats.

the rule of thumb here is - PHOTOS help us help you

FWIW, no pictures ... but I once made some brackets to hold a cooler up off the floor on the port-side of my 14’ skiff, reasoning that it balanced the skiff out since I operated the skiff from the starboard side using a tiller-steered OB.

With the brackets off that side of the hull, the cooler was as tight to the port gunnel as I could get it and yet I could still put my feet under it, so I didn’t lose any walking or moving around room.

It worked for me … but as you well know … space (and ‘trim’) is PREMIUM on small boats!

I hate stepping over the seat or cooler when moving fore and aft in the boat so I removed my bench and added a grab bar so I could operate it standing and incorporated the cooler in front of the grab bar.

Here is a crappy picture of my set up but the cooler would sit in front of the grab bar.

Depends what you have in it.

I always have mine "within reach"

Thanks for the ideas on the bench.

Has anyone ever cut out a place in one of the benches to insert an insulated fish bag? I don't know if it would even work or how exactly I would execute it, but I'm sort of thinking of all my options at this point.