I'm buying an older (early 80's) fiberglass trihull, 14-foot duck hunting/fishing jon boat witha 25-hp evinrude.  It has controls from the front seat (the seat is in the center of the boat).  On the right, it has an evinrude simplex throttle with two shifters.  Just to the left of the seat, it has a stick that steers the motor.  I have a few questions. 1) How old may this motor and control system be?  The seller doesn't really know?  2)  What do the two throttle levers control?  3)  Has anyone ever controlled the steering with a stick and how difficult is it?  4)  Can I convert the two lever throttle control to a single lever like a modern boat?  5)  Can I convert the stick steering to a steering wheel and maybe build a little console for it?.  This is my first boat and I am excited that I can control the boat from the front seat, but I don't know how difficult it will be to manuever in tight spaces when I have a stick in my left hand and two levers in my right hand.  Oh, one more question.  The boat has a 67-pound thrust trolling motor.  That seems like overkill for a 14-foot boat.  Can I effectively control a small boat with a trolling motor that powerful?

Stick steering is very common for boats that don't have a console, won't take no time to get used to it, just don't go making hair pin turns at full throttle until you get very used to it.

You will probably find the two control levers are one is the shifter, the other is the throttle.  Yes you can convert it to a single lever but I wouldn't go through the expense.

Depending on just how old it is, the model number on the data plate should have the year in it, unless it was before they started doing that.  If it's throught the hub exhaust, it's at least a late 70's.  As for the age of the steering system, probably installed when boat was new, and it's still used today, I'm just getting ready to install stick steering on one of mine, really works good in rivers, puts you up front where you can see much better.

The 67# TM will still come down to a crawl.  The boat sounds like one someone used on rivers with a fairly swift current because it's the perfect setup for that.