This is my first post on this site, so let me start by saying how much of a blessing it was for me to stumble across this site. What a wealth of information !!

I recently purchased a 14 foot aluminum Sea Ark jon boat. The stern is straight across (not pointed), and the bottom of the boat is pretty flat, it does curve upward towards from the middle to the stern. I have an old evinrude 18 hp outboard, and a brand new 12 volt 50 # minnkota TM to power this beast around the waters with.

I started putting a deck on the front half of the boat last night and I ran into a few questions that I would like your opinions on:

1.) I was planning on using the area behind the rear seat for the gas tank and starting battery storage, then decking over this area. I am also decking from the middle seat forward and would like to install a homeade livewell immediately in front of the middle seat under the new deck, with a couple of other smaller storage areas under the front deck also. I am wondering about the center of gravity issue with doing this.. will it be a stability/planeability issue if I put my livewell forward of center in the boat?

What if I put the trolling motor battery up in the front also?

2.) has anyone been on a boat similar to mine that has been decked, and how stable did it feel?

3.) if I put my TM on the transom rather than the stern it looks like the back of the boat gets pretty crowded, will I have problems with interference between the outboard and the trolling motor?

4.) I am planning on leaving the existing seats intact, decking over them, and leaving the middle floor area of the boat open, would this be a better place for the livewell? I hate to do this because it will be more cluttered, the thought of it being under the front decking sounds nice and clean looking..

If you don't mind shedding a little light on these issues I would appreciate it....

Thanks and once again, thanks for the website..

Tim from Albuquerque

My personal opinion on decking over the gas tank/battery is DON'T do it.  Well, save it for last anyway.  Getting fuel tanks and a battery (anchor, short oar) out of this space shouldn't be hindered.  Leaving the space open might not LOOK smooth and streamlined, but it is easier to deal with.  To each his own I guess, and I'm certain others will disagree with me on this one, but I'm for leaving it open.

Mike

My dad and I worked on our 18ft jon boat that we bought this past summer, and we also made a deck, but we only put our battery charger for the trolling motor under it, the rest is for storage.

I was curious tho, if anyone had ever built a deck the same way we had. we made two braces, at the front end of the boat where it rises, and at the front of the first seat, then we hung 4 floor joist hangers on both sides, and used 2x4's to make it level with the seat when a piece of half inch plywood was put on top of the joists...we did it this way to keep the boat as light as possible, while still making a good size deck....(it's 8x5 ft....) anyway, i was just curious about people's thoughts...i'm not sure if it'll work, but i'll try to attach a picture in case anyone was curious to see how it looks....

tight lines

i figured out how to get the pic up

correction, it is a 14 foot aluminum Mon Ark,  not a Sea Ark...

I still don't have any answers about the Center of gravity issue with placing the livewell just forward of the middle seat..  does anyone know if this is a bad idea  or  an alright idea??

thanks!

In my 16" Lowe the live well is right in the middle of the boat, just in front of it is the trolling motor battery/s ( when we go to Canada there is 2 there, with the charger). That seem's to balance the boat quiet well, especially when I am the only one in the boat. I have the back fully decked, the fuel tank and starting battert there, I did drill several 3" holes to vent that area for safety sake. My boat is a 16-52 with a 76" width across the top and is fairly stable. Hope that helps.

Guys, the bow is the front the stern is the rear and the transom is where the engines are mounted.  An enclosed gas tank will need to be vented.  Also don't forget the fire extiguisher.  You may want to take a trip to a Bass Pro shop if you have one near by and look at how their boats are layed out just to get some ideas.  If not try searching the web for examples.  We have built boat with decks running the entire legnth of the boat and had no stability issues, but these were for electric only lakes.

Good Luck,

Tom D.