I have a boat with a seat that hangs from bolts attached at the coaming. Is the bottom of the seat (under your butt) supposed to be touching the bottom of the boat, or should it actually be suspended with all of your weight carried by the bolts near the coaming?
This happens to be a composite Capella with the older seat. 2003 I think.
Would appreciate info. It has rubbed thru the hull inder the seat. I patched the hull and I want to avoid future problems.
I’m thinking I need to thicken the foam spacer under the front edge of the seat which would raise it off the bottom of the boat. If it needs support on the bottom, I thought some
mini cell foam under the butt area of the seat might reduce the abrasion on the hull.
I really don’t want to glue it down, because I like to have it removable in case I have to do hull repairs in the future.
My Pintail has
foam glued under the seat to help support it. There are three blocks under the seat that are made from some pretty stiff foam similar to what those swimming noodles are made from. If It’s glued to the seat only you could still remove the seat to do repairs to the hull.
That’s a common P&H problem
I've seen P&H boats with that were rubbed through under the seat until there was nothing left but gelcoat. The problem is that grit/sand gets between the seat and the hull and grinds it away as the hanging seat shifts around.
You don't need to add any foam, just bond the seat in place so it can't move and seal it to the hull so grit can't get between the seat and the hull again. I would use Lexel sealant or one of the GOOP products (they're all the same except for the labeling), as that will accomplish both bonding and sealing in one shot. Just put a good layer of the sealant on the hull in the contact areas, then re-mount the seat. Allow it to cure for at least a day before using it, preferably 2-3 days.
If you ever need to remove the seat, you'll still be able to by working a putty knife through the sealant, but it's not going to loosen by itself or wear through the hull again.
Thanks
I guess I'll go ahead and glue the seat down.
Before I do, please tell me how hard it is to get materials like Goop off and get the hull to a clean surface for future repairs. Is it just a matter of hand sanding? Does it sand off relatively easily.
Thank you all for your comments!
funny thing
Make sure the area under the foam is clean, then, if the foam breaks down, replace it.
I was paddling a fleet boat (Easy Rider Eskimo, I believe) when I noticed I was taking on a lot of water. I inspected the outside, and couldn’t find the hole. Finally, the hole was found to have been made from a BB sized pebble the foam was holding in place under the seat. I guess over a long time, that pebble just wore through the glass, and a tiny gel-coat crack let water through. An easy fix, but worth avoiding by making sure there is no space for sand/grit to get between the seat and hull.
Sand can cause real problems I guess
I noticed some spider cracks in the gel coat radiating outwards from a center spot. I took the seat out to check out the problem, and I was shocked to find two spots of bare gelcoat inside the hull where the seat had been rubbing. One was bigger than a quarter and the other was about the size of a pencil. Lord knows how long they had been there. They could have put me in a real fix if I hadn’t dicovered them in time.
A few months ago I had a similar problem with my heels starting to rub through also.
I am definitely going to be more diligent about cleaning the sand out of the bottom of the boat from now on.
GOOP is no problem
You can scrape most of it off with a putty knife and a little elbow grease. The rest will come off with a solvent like lacquer thinner.
That’s not so bad
One boat I saw had two areas under the seat the size of eggs worn through to the the gelcoat! For your heels, just lay in a couple of extra layers for fiberglass where the rub.