The cockpit is obviously the most important station of any boat, without a well setup cockpit your boat will be next to useless in all but the most basic fishing and navigation situations.

This is a picture of the cockpit or drivers seat from my boat, i have labled all of the major items. As you can see, it is all fairly straight foward, with only basic instruments a few safety items and a fishfinder.

Steering Wheel
Use this to steer the boat, remember that a boat (unlike a car) steers from the stern. Make sure you don't turn too hard and wipe out your stern when leaving dock.

Fish Finder
Apart from atually helping you find fish, fish finders can also give you some other very important information, such as water depth, speed and surface water temperture.

GPS
Most boats these days have a GPS (Global Positioning System). They are great tools for finding those old favourite fishing grounds, and are also a great safety item. You can always find your way back home with a GPS, but remember they can fail. Make sure that your manual navigation skills up up to scratch before going beyond the sight of land.

Compass
All boats should be fitted with a compass and you should know how to use it.

27 Mhz Marine Radio
An extremely important safety tool, do not leave port with out at least a 27MHz radio. It can also be used for getting weather updates and finding out where the fish are biting. Consider carrying a protable radio as well as a fixed one incase you are stuck with a dead battery. If you have the money, i would highly recomend that you get a VHF radio and take a radio operators course.

Switches
Used to turn on variouse equipment such as bilge pumps, running lights, radios etc..

Cigarette Lighter
Although I do not smoke, i still find that a lighter can be a very usefull thing to have on a boat, because it is basicly a power point, almost everything electrical, from spotlights to fridges and TV's can be plugged into these. Install at least one in your boat, even if you are not a smoker.

Fuel Guage
Gives you a rough idea how much fuel is left in your tank.

Tilt & Trim Conrol
Use this to to tilt the engine up and down for maximum fuel efficentcy and comfort.

Tilt & Trim Guage
Gives you a visual reference of the angle of the engine.

Safety Cut Off Cord
If this cord is pulled out the engine will cut off. Attatch this cord to some part of your clothing incase you fall overboard.

Ignition
Turn the key to start the engine. The key will not normally turn if the boat is in gear. On most boats fitted with an outboard motor, when you turn the key you will hear a loud warning signal. Do not be alarmed this is just to let you know that the warning system is working and will turn off straight away. If you hear this sound while driving consult your engine manual to find out what is wrong.

Choke
Helpful for starting cold engines.

Throttle
This lever controls the speed of the boat, in both forwards and reverse.

Clutch
Lift this lever when ingaging forward or reverse gears.

Tacometer
Tells you how much the engine is revving in 1000's RPM. Your engine manual should explain what the optimum RPM's are for your engine. If you find that your engine is not producing the right RPM's you should try a different propellor. Lots of marine mechanics will actaully let you try out a few different pitched props, before you have to buy one.

Engine Timer
Lets you know the total amount of hours that the engine has been running. When buying a boat, do not rely on this guage to tell you how old an engine is because engine timers can easily be disconnected.