Thanks everyone.
Interesting, I thought the longer rod would give more distance but that seem not to be the case. I did thought about cutting the butt back a bit but as fifis101 indicated the longer butt is for greater casting power so I can't really cut it back.
I feel more comfortable with the 14ft so I migth go with the 14ft and use good quality line and work on my technique as benno573 suggested.
rinkerdink - I have never heard of a Century TTLDSM until now, from what i could find on google, it looks good. I will have to look into this further.
Thanks for all your suggestions