[esoxesox]

Hi HatTrick,

Sorry for the delayed response...

I have the batteries mounted forward under the CC seat. I glassed in a piece of marine plywood that spans the width of the console, anchored battery boxes there along with the breaker and the on board charger. The starting battery is up there too.

The nose on my '73 isn't as clean as yours is. I have a permanent bow light forward of the puck. I pulled off the starboard cleat to allow for the mount of the quick release bracket. It's the one that just leaves a small rectangular puck on the deck when the motor is off. I've always intended on installing pop up cleats set back a bit but, for now, I just come in port side to.😏

The old Riptide you see in the pic requires months of strength training to deploy but comes up easily. We have a newer Terrova on a Javelin that is a piece of cake to deploy. We fish in some decent chop up here in Minnesota and never really felt I was hanging out over the bow bringing the motor back in.