Many many years ago i hired one of these Caribbean type of boats on the Thames. A lovely comfortable boat it was too.
The only trouble when helming from the front was that you actually didn't know what the back end was doing.
Not too bad when cruising, but try entering a lock, with what seems, your stern trying to overtake you!
It happened to me, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, when entering that lock that has a great display of flowers and hordes of gongoozelers (Sonning Lock maybe). As I remember, it had a weir immediately before you went into it.
Note! boats don't go in sideways!
After that bit of embarrassment, I rigged up a line of sight using the boat hook petruding from the bow, that seemed to improve things a tad!
Nipper