Cliff:
Here ya go:
- New Seats
- IMG_20181016_090958-800x600.jpg (109.54 KiB) Viewed 13420 times
Honestly, I didn't want to show these till I got them all nicely oiled and purdy, but since you're asking....
A few notes:
-I did these as planks because I like the look better. You can't see well from this angle, but the outermost and innermost planks are curved. The curve was the hardest part to do. The planks are connected to each other with three crosswise 1x1 strips underneath. Tropical hardwood (Cumaru), so plenty of strength. There are no supports for the seats other than the steel plate between seats and thwarts (underneath) and the cleats around the sides (bulkheads).
-If you blowup the photo a bit, you'll see that I have bronze "studs" holding the seats at the bulkheads. Those are actually bronze wood screws with a bronze "finishing washer", saves me the trouble of countersinking.
-I did not want to put any screws or countersinks, or plugs in the areas where I'd actually sit, so the connection to the centerboard and to the steel connecting plate are screwed in underneath the seats. This also is proving to be a pain... every screwhole needs to be pre-drilled and even though I test-fit, marked and pre-drilled the holes with the boards out of the boat, of course some are off. So now I have to drill and screw in a 10-inch space under the seat, not fun! Doable with an angle drill attachment, but my poor shoulders as I scrunch myself in there.... OK, first world problems
-On the positive side, I made these seats 16" wide instead of the original 12". I did some test measurements on my butt to come up with an ideal seat width
The extra space makes them much more comfortable for sitting, Ok to lie down on (like a narrow single bed, but I've slept on worse before), and doesn't impede my legroom for putting feet down on the bilges, even up by the centerboard.
OK! Way more than you wanted to know about seats. I have to finish the underneath screwing (that sounds just wrong!) and then give it another light sanding and oil it (using Penofin Marine Oil). Then I'll post FINAL pics. Gotta clean the storm debris out of the bilges as well, always sump'n to do.
Tom