Mine is offset to the left side of the boat, bow mount. I built a bracket for it. The bracket also houses an accessory plug (for charging cell phone, spot light, etc), a courtesy light, and the trolling motor plug. When I want to cover it up, the trolling motor is on a quick release mount so unscrew the knob and pull the motor off and nothing is in the way. Bow mount does take up a little more space but if you're like me and the seat is 3 feet away from the bow, trying to control the motor while sitting in the seat can be challenging. When I sold my other boat (which was a bow mount hand control motor) I let the motor go with it because I hated it. Constantly fiddling with steering, speed, etc. I bought a wireless Motorguide with a hand held control "fob"....problem solved. There is a lot of pluses with this motor. Dad sits in front of the boat, I sit in the back and I run the trolling motor from the back. Same deal with my girlfriend. She sits in front. Also it's variable speed. The pedal is not in the way because it doesn't have one....well it does but it's wireless so it goes wherever you want it. Then one day the GF was holding the boat at the ramp, or she was supposed to be holding it and it got away from her. By time I got the trailer in the water, the boat was about 10 feet from the ramp and slowly drifting. Use of the hand held remote bought it right back to me. About 18-20 feet is the maximum range. If there was any downside, it's that the steer motor is a a tiny bit noisy but you get used to it pretty quickly.