2 seats with floatation -- Where should I put them?

I have a 14 foot MirrorCraft Deep V. When I bought it, it only came with 2 seats (middle and front with what looks like solid flotation) and had a piece of wood for the back seat (picture attached.

My question is where should I put the seats keep the structure and integrity of the hull? Should I move the middle to the back (will most likely have to shorten it slightly) or keep them where they are?

I plan on having a raised deck that sits ON TOP of the front 2 seats with a deck on top of the ribs and the back seat going to the transom with storage boxes built in.

At first I was going to leave them out, build a frame and add my own floatations under the deck, but after reading some threads on here I found it best to use what I have and not mess/adjust the hull integrity and structure.

Any advice would be appreciated

In a 14' boat you can remove the seats completely and you will not notice much if any flexing, the longer the boat the more effect it will have. Put the seats where you want them and how they suit you and your style of boating/fishing. I removed the center bench seat from my 1448 flat bottom and covered the floor with plywood. I kept the rear bench and extended the front deck back a little to make it larger. I now have a movable seat that I can put anywhere I want in the boat. For me it is the best setup I have seen.

I removed the center bench seat, for me it was just in the way and I hate stepping over it all the time.


I use this seat, I can set it anywhere I want, either up on the front deck or in the middle of the boat for running.

It is hard to find but I got the stainless legs from Tempress (Mr. Crappie® Swingin' Single – Stainless) and a swivel and the seat just came from wally world.

I think the OP's seats are much more a part of the structural integrity of the boat than surfman's. The ribs on surfman's boat extend up the gunwales and provide support to them, where the OP's boat doesn't have any ribs up the gunwales. But with adding a deck that ties everything together, I think it would be fine and the deck would replace the structual support that the seats provided. If the OP was just going to remove the seats and do nothing else I would advise against it.

I'd want the foam front and back so the boat is level when it flounders.

lckstckn2smknbrls said:

I'd want the foam front and back so the boat is level when it flounders.

Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense. I'll probably have to use the middle seat and somehow lengthen it to fit since the stern since it's wider. Have to figure out how I'm going to do that before I start the rebuild.

I attached photos of what I plan on doing.

I think I'm going to keep them in the middle and the front as pictured. I feel that my front casting deck would be much more supported with it resting on the two front seats rather than just one. Also, the framing would be substantially simpler and I think all I'll have to do is attach a few support beams to the ribs for the deck to lay on. I do plan on adding storage bins and boxes also so I think I have to come up with some sort of idea for the framing that and make sure it's strong enough to support one or two storage bins and a removable seat pedestal.

Do you think this would be too much weight in the front?

I was planning on just having the floor lay on top of the gunwales between the middle and rear bench but I'm throwing around the idea of having it extend all the way to the transom. I'm thinking that I can use the space between the floor and the rear extended bench for larger storage like life jackets, oars, etc. with a latch door (indicated in yellow).

Thoughts?

The last picture is somewhat of a model I'm using.