I agree with the folks that say its a preference more than anything.
We almost never boat with little kids anymore, when mine were young I did not have would not have a bow rider simply due to my fear/concerns.
We now have a Formula 270 BR and we LOVE the boat and ability to carry more people, but somehow or because of balance, I always end up with someone taller than I prefer in front of me. On a nice day the woman seem to hit the front of the boat first, and they rarely lay out, mostly sitting upright, and the Formula has a deep cockpit so with me at only 5' 11" (when I'm not slouching,,,) I can struggle a bit to have completely unfettered view even when standing. In this boat sitting is not even an option when there are adults in front.
I am actually contemplating a low riser on the floor and the same for the booster seat, might try to get Formula to use the original seat material to build an extra topper that could strap around and sit on top of the bolster. Just a few more inches would help.
Plus I have to confess, growing up and spending summers on Winnipesaukee in the 1960's, all we ever had was closed bow cockpit forward boats, and its just a look I really like. In the early 70's they started building the closed bow boats with a windshield that opened, and molded in stairs and anchor locker. Some had grab bars from the windshield going forward and a textured surface and maybe a short bow rail around the whole nose. Then they layered in lots of seating in the long and open cockpit. So you got a really useful boat with very reasonable carrying capacity. I would really love to see a couple of the mainstream brands bring back a design like that, I think it would be popular. Well so says I,,,
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