Bench seat available?

[DesertAlbin736]

Hmmm, Dkirsop's hinged seat support and Stxray's reversable seat. Oh no! Another idea to spend more money! One of our sailing buddies made his own custom bimini for his Catalina 30 sailboat and has a tube bending tool, so I could borrow it and copy dkirsop's invention.

However, I wonder whether Stxray's seat would work with dkirsop's tip up mechanism? Would the armrests get in the way? Can the back rest fold flat besides being reversible? How heavy is that reversible seat? I read that the reversible seat stxray is talking about weighs 49 lbs. I think our current stock seat weighs around 30 lbs because I can easily lift it & carry over to the aft cabin top. We have the old style engine box where the seat has to be removed and set aside to open up the the engine box. Major PITA! At least former owners cut an access opening in the top of the engine box so I can at least check oil level without having to go thru all the rigamarole of fully opening the engine box.

I agree, if only one could only modify the stock seat to be reversible. Quite hard to see how to make that happen. Would take quite a bit of extra MacGyver engineering. It would have to have some sort of swing arm like stxray's seat, but also have the backrest be able to rotate on its horizontal axis so that it reverses, because the back of the stock seat is just flat and hard. Main thing I don't like about our stock seat is that it's not very comfortable. Ours doesn't have that little bolster on the front edge.

What if instead of tipping the seat base up could it be made to swing back horizontally over the bench seat? Could that allow enough clearance to open the engine box? Could the seat then be mounted on a swivel base so that with the seat swung to a 45 degree angle would that give enough clearance to rotate the seat 180 degrees on the swivel base?

Anyway, good food for thought. I'm saving dkirsop's photos to look into what it would take to copy his set up. Sure would be nice not to have to manhandle the seat & set it on the aft cabin deck every time one wants to get at the engine. I sure hope we can meet up with dkirsop on S. Pender Island or at his marina at Thieves Bay on N. Pender next summer.

[kerrye]

One thing I don't like about the reversible seat is that it doesn't lock in position. I sometimes find myself grabbing the top of the back of the bench seat for stability. If it tips forward unexpectedly, this could be unpleasant.

[DesertAlbin736]

WillieC says,

You can kinda see it in the picture. The legs sit just starboard of the engine cover. My whole cover slides back and I enjoy the pleasure of banging my head on the seat frame, but I don't have to remove the whole thing when working on the engine.

That's the crux of the biscuit with the older model tip up box like ours. Other than dkirsop's solution, no matter how a double seat is supported, it needs to be removed to tip up the engine box, including need to remove the first floor board aft of the engine. Obviously why Albin changed the design mid production, probably got a lot of complaints. Replacing the bench with a pair of single helm seats partially solves the problem, but you still have to remove the seat over the engine box.

[Sunsetrider]

Dkirsop should start charging for his designs. I copied his fridge slider concept.

[WillieC]

I'm going to combine the fridge slider with the reversible seat and have the seat move forward (closer to the wheel when reversed) to take real advantage of the convertible pilot house.

Film at Eleven.

Edit:
Here's the film:

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=10725

(See also Part 1)

I had been thinking that the only way to reverse the seat was to let it flip over, the seat back becomes the seat bottom. Only the original seat back is obviously not intended to be sat upon. Then it dawned on me that the seat, the whole bench seat, could be pivoted, not flipped over. Still, I like the new seats shown in this post, but I am cheap.

[Sunsetrider]

Think about using a luxury car seat from a junk yard with a 12V push-button slider/recliner. On a swivel.

[WillieC]

How about a hospital bed with nurse call and tv remote at hand? Now THAT"S our demographic!
(Semi) Seriously, I have thought of the junkyard routine. At one point in my journey I installed a pair of Ford bucket seats in my 1963 VW Double Kab pickup. That was absolutely the best part of that car!

[hetek]

Willie C -

We think alike! I installed a pair of Oldsmobile power bucket seats in my 1966 VW 7 door transporter van.

I would caution about using auto seats in a marine environment. I see rust stains in someone's future if they try.

[johnvb1014]

Our 25 had a homemade bench seat when we bought it. It was pretty nicely designed and could be folded up to gain access to engine. I refinished the whole thing but then decided to take it out for swivel seats. If interested can send photos when we return from Florida. We trailered our 25 down here and will be here for another month or so.

John VB

[DesertAlbin736]

Back on December 8th stxray wrote,

I picked it up on sale for $350 with free shipping. Watch their sales and I'm sure you could do the same.

You got a good deal. The link you provided shows they're $420 now.

[kerrye]

John, I just told my BIL about your seat. They live in Clyde, NY which is not far from you. If they haven't already ordered the bench seat linked here, I believe they will be interested in yours.