Lower station - Yes or no?

[Captned]

Greetings all, I am repainting the bottom of my lower station when I started wondering if I should keep it at all. The boats a 1978 46 C. I have the throttles disconnected but the gears are still hooked up. Only once have I used it, when one of my upper station gear controls broke. If I got rid of it, I would leave the gear controls and mount them somewhere down here. Pros or cons anyone? A built in grill or tackle station would look real good here. However I would have to cap off the the steering lines, remove the battery combiner switch, move some switches, move a GCFI outlet, etc... Hmmm, maybe I should just paint the bottom and leave well enough alone.......... Any suggestions?

Thanks, Captned

[Captned]

Oops, heres a picture...

[StratPlan61]

Paint it, polish it, make certain the lower helm looks as nice as it can look and have a nice Sunbrella canvas cover made for it to match your other canvas. Then you have it for emergencies, but it remains standard for resale, mechanicals, etc.
No sense creating more work and cost for yourself, it doesn't take up much space and the next guy may want it?

[surfdancer45]

IMHO I would remove the lower station and keep the Morse controls only in the cockpit (on top of tackle cabinet maybe). I think it cleans up the cocpit and allows installation of a more functional unit such as bait station, freezer etc. The shifts and throttles come in handy for emergency or when the Captain needs to help in the cockpit.

[Captned]

Thanks guys, I think I will clean it up for the time being and look at inserts at the FLBS...

Cheers,

Captned..

[Mike36c]

I custom made a custom cockpit mount for shifters only on my 36, I don't use them much but they sure come in handy when 6 rods bend with yellowfin tunas.

[thoward]

I looked at putting lower controls on the 60. I think gears and throttles would be enough as you can not see forward anyway. I want a mac daddy tackle station first and gears second but that is a personal choice.

[luckydave215]

I have a cockpit station (gears/throttles and autopilot repeater so I can steer) and use it all the time when fishing short handed. It's useless when going forward or docking, as the visibility is non existant, but when backing down on fish offshore while getting ready to gaff, it's great.
When I bought the boat, I thought it was superflous, but I guess not......