Rear cabin boats are nice, BUT for those that like to fish, closer to the water is better. On our Sportfisher, the rear cockpit floor is about 8" lower than the floor in the main salon that houses the lower helm station. Having the cockpit floor lower means no handrail is needed around the rear gunnels and transom -- the teak toerail is just the right height to serve that purpose. From our cockpit floor dipping a 30 pound salmon out of the water with a net would be easy.
I think the cockpit floor on most Sportfishers is only about 5" lower than the salon floor, but the previous owner of this boat told us that this boat was when new a charter fishing craft in California, and the charter company had the floor of the cockpit torn out and rebuilt 3" lower.
We will be rebuilding the cockpit deck eventually, and are debating whether to set it at the original elevation or at its current elevation. The rebuilt will be to fix some dryrot, and to remove an unused (and we think aftermarket) water tank and create a lazaret area large enough to get down into and use.