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Q1: what will be the effect of removing the center console of a SAKONNET 16 and using a 360-lbs tiller-steered engine on weight distribution?

BACKSTORY
I just acquired a 1969 SAKONNET 16 that needs work. I am interested in changing the engine to tiller steering. To have more open space I plan to remove the center console. I plan to use the boat mainly for angling. The tiller-steered engine will be 75-HP and will weigh 360-lbs.

My first reaction to your plan: Why would you want to destroy a SAKONNET by turning it into an open boat with tiller steering?

Unless the wooden center console, the reversible pilot seat, and the other wooden components of the SAKONNET are completely rotted and useless, to rip out all that fine wood to make the hull into an open boat would be very unusual--really not a good idea.

Also, tiller steering with a 75-HP engine that weighs 360-lbs is another bad idea.

Why buy a classic Boston Whaler center console boat and ruin it?

ecs wrote:Q1: what will be the effect of removing the center console of a SAKONNET 16 and using a 360-lbs tiller-steered engine on weight distribution?

Moving the helmsman to the stern and using a 360-lbs engine will create a huge change in weight distribution. There will be too much weight on the transom and too much weight in the stern. Boston Whaler never made an open 16-foot hull with tiller steering--for a good reason.

Even the base model CURRITUCK used remote steering with the helm amidship.

Also, I do not understand your aversion to having a center console boat for angling. The most common model of the 16/17 hull is the MONTAUK center console model, and for angling it seems like the perfect boat.