reserve bouyancy and strength from stern fishboxes on 69 20sf

[TMala]

Hi all,
I'm in the process of replacing the transom on a 1969 20sf and raising it to 25in. The entire reason for this is safety, I fish alot in the inlets and spots where your getting wave action from the bow and wakes from the rear. As i'm raising the transom I was going to keep the fish boxes in because they appear to add strength to the transom and if water hit the deck or a wave came in from the back they would definitely supply reserve buoyancy in helping keeping the powerhead above water. The boxes in my 20sf have water tight hatches.

Now that i'm into the project and saw some other restorations on here it would be nice to ditch the boxes so I can make more space and not have the sketchy drains as the boat is in the water all season long so i'm torn now to keep em or ditch em.

Any thoughts on the rear boxes making the boat safer and stronger or am I overthinking their function?

As i'm rebuilding the transom I am going to try and build the cut out as small as possible and add some type of wall. I really liked the squidlips rebuild if I had that much talent thats how my transom would look.

Thanks
Tom