Thanks for the help Capt Chuck. I think I finally got this pic thing figured out...
A pic of one happy kid, fishing off of North Miami Beach a few years back.
I have a question regarding the deck. As you can see from the pics in my first post above, the boat sits a little above the red waterline stripe. With the rear seats and bilge access hatches removed I ran a level from the existing deck to the transom and discovered that the deck level is currently 1/2" above the red stripe, so maybe I only have to raise the deck level 1 or 1 1/2" to drain the cockpit though the transom. Also, I had originally planned to close the transom and put a bracket on the back, but I'm having second thoughts due to some performance questions I've seen raised and finances.