>At the back edge of the front deck, there is a sunken "step"
>in the middle. I presume this is where the middle bench is.

Yes, that is the middle bench. It also contains the livewell and supports the deck.

>Why did you maintain the full deck height at the sides over
>the middle bench?

Because the higher you are the better right? :)

>I suspect you have some storage, livewell, or something under
>the deck. Do you have any photos showing this?

Yes, I put hinges on the deck about 3/4's of the way back for storage underneath. The way the boat looks in the picture is usually the way it looks while i'm fishing. Clutter free. Just my rods in the back and the net on the front deck with me. Everything else is under the deck.

>When you take a friend out, and you're going to go flying down
>the lake with the gas engine, where does your buddy sit?

Where ever I tell him to :) Actually, he'll just sit on the middle bench. If I wanted, I could face the rods the other way and he could sit next to me, but that would look... um well, nevermind.

Hope this helps. I never took any step by step photos, so it would be hard to show excactly the way I built it. You live around here right? If you want, I could show you the boat one of these days and maybe give you some ideas.