I have a 2014 XFactor and I've mounted a couple of slide-traxxs on the rails of my yak right in front of my seat so I can have the adjustable/sliding ram balls and rod holders on them. Pix in my avatar kind of shows that a bit. That's been pretty convenient for me, mostly so I can have my rods in front of me when paddling.
I have my livewell plumbed.
I plan to mount a blacktip three rod holder in the rear cargo area, right behind the seat.
That's pretty much the extent of the mods I've made.
Paddling out through the waves, a bit of water tends to get into the yak and that ends up getting most of the stuff in my hatches wet. Those cloth boxes do not keep your stuff dry and so I always have everything in plastic bags and generally have to take those cloth boxes out when I get home, otherwise your stuff will stay damp... and everything will rust pretty fast (don't ask me how I learned this...)
That's about it. It's a barge of a yak that's safe and stable. Not the fastest yaks but you'll be very happy with it if it's your first yak and you're just getting into all this.
Definitely practice flipping your yak and climbing back into it before you take it out into the ocean. And before you take it into the ocean, I'd practice paddling out into the waves and returning with an empty yak. I generally back paddle with my nose pointed into the waves when returning -- a lot easier to do this than to surf the waves but everyone has their own way of doing things! You might even want to flip a few times in the waves just to get an idea of how that feels and how you'd handle that.
Enjoy!!!! Post some pixs!!!