hiking in comfort

[calden]

Hey all:

For the first part of the summer, as I was learning to sail my DSI, I was constantly frustrated at the inability to hike out due to the coamings. I was advised to cut down the coamings or even replace them with substitutes, so as not to ruin the labor-intensive job on them I did over the winter. Neither of these solutions seemed feasible for me.

I solved the problem by making hiking pads that sit on the gunwales up against the coamings. They are the height of the coamings and the width of the gunwales.

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You can also sort of see the starboard pad in this newer picture:
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I used the dried styrofoam floatation from the seats as material, glued up a few of them, then rasped it to shape. I then covered it with marine-grade furniture vinyl. They're held on by some clips I made that press-fit onto the coamings, with 1" webbing loops on them. I screwed a few hammock hooks on the underside of the rubrail, with D-rings hanging off them. 1" webbing goes through these fittings to secure the pad onto the gunwale.

I'm altering this system to using footman loops (flat 1" webbing strap eyestraps essentially) in place of the hammock hooks. This way I'll have three pair on each side of the boat, and used three straps on each pad, threaded through the loops. (see post below with more pictures.)

They work great. An unexpected benefit is when sailing casually we can rest our elbows on something comfortable.

Carlos

[Lloyd Franks]

Hey Carlos...Nice work. I haven't hiked out yet, but I will keep your mod in mind when I do. Thanks.

Lloyd

[tony]

carlos,
excellent solution! I plan to do the same. Can you take some more photographs (close-ups) and post them or e-mail me.
thaanks again for your innovation.
best,
tony
antonyrieck@bellsouth.net

[calden]

Rather than further clutter up the website photo space wth my pictures, I've put together a small website with more info and pictures about these hiking pads. I've improved on the strap attachment system in the pictures in the above post.

http://eaglelake1.org/hiking/hiking.html

Carlos

[flieger]

Clever!
Excellent work!

[hightide]

Carlos, I want to applaud your ingenuity as well as your respect for that mahogany coaming. They are so lovely when brightened up.

I love looking at your photos and those of other forum members -- they are inspiring!

hightide