for comparison with Mike D's, and CSN's (which are back on pg 1)
I did some measuring, my seat lids are 19" wide, and the bottom of the transom cutout is 21 1/2" wide. Nick - would be interesting to know what yours are, in comparison - just from the two equal pix, it looks like yours is considerably wider - I'd be willing to be that two 70's vintage motors of 60 - 70 hp could be mounted in there.
So getting back to the original question by Gaulois - doing something to improve the stern seaworthiness is really going to depend on which flavor you have - Mike's is the most wide open, yet already has a good splash board, Nick's is pretty open, especially for how far out he goes, yet he's reported no problems, and mine is really alot tighter than I thought, and I've had no problems, so far, even trolling in 4 - 6's..... but I still don't really feel comfortable with it.... and on one occasion when my son hooked up with a big bruiser, which was stripping line out fast, and my first inclination was to back down on it, but then I looked at the swells, and turned the boat to chase the fish.
Nick - your placement of batteries, fuel filter, trim tab pump, etc, makes alot of sense, also tells me that you don't have the fishbox under the port seat - here's a pic of mine -
It's amazing how much different these same boats are!
G - yes - thats an '83 Johnson 115 V-4, this was a one owner boat before me, guy bought it new in 73, repowered with this motor in 84 (leftover 83) he was probably 50ish when he bought the boat, now in his 80's, hadn't really used it much the last 6 years, and wasn't a troller, was more of a drift fisherman - the old chum bucket was still in the boat when I got it - I don't know when they changed power ratings on outboards from at-the-powerhead to at-the-prop - but it gets up and goes nice - a shade over 30 measured by GPS, which is plenty unless it's flat calm out.
Bill