Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Hi guys, <br /><br />My GF got me a nice shiny new boat seat, pole and floor bracket.. <br /><br />All look great, but I had alittle trouble getting it into the boat. (the bracket requires a hole be drilled into the floor ) Turns out the main stringer is directly under the floor where the pole needs to go.... so Ok, I made a spacer out of some very hard treated woood I had on hand, covered it with carpet and it allowed me to place the seat correctly. (the spacer is about 1 1/2 inches thick)<br /><br />The problem I have now, is that I am not convinced that this setup is strong enough for someone my size to be swinging off.. And I'm not convinced the floor (3/4 inch ply) is think enough to hold together with my 115kg sitting on it.... its good enough for stationary testing, but if I lean the floor starts creaking... My question is why would a boat place sell a floor bracket thats less then 12 inches in diameter to support a seat that is on a 3 foot pole.???<br /><br />and is there any tricks to making this thing more stable?<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Franki,<br /><br />How did you end up attaching it to the floor?<br /><br />Screws, toggle nuts, etc?

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Well the bolts that are not above the stringers have nuts on the bottom, I was able to get an arm though an access panel for that..<br /><br />The two that are over the stinger (which is 3x4 jarrah beam) are 6 inch self tappers... <br /><br />I'm more concerned with ripping up the floor or something.. not with the bolts ripping though, the floor flexes alittle when I lean.. and it creaks..<br /><br />One of these days, I will rip the whole floor up and do something more solid... cos although it doesn't flex when I jump on it, it just doesn't seem stable enough to have a pole seat mounted on it.. I toyed with the idea of a temp fix.. to get a piece of 1 1/2 inch hardwood thats the width of the boat, and bolt it to the stringers on both sites... mount the seat base to that.. might do till I can get the floor done properly..<br /><br />what do you think? is that the best way to go about it?<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Franki,<br /><br />I am in agreement with your last idea. The more the load is spread out, the better.

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

ok, thanks I guess that will have to do...<br /><br />I'll go hunting for a nice 12 x 1 1/2 lump of hardwood... that will hopefully give it enough stability for sideways pressure, have to work out how to stabalize forward or backward pressure now.. <br /><br />I'm tempted to throw the pole and base away and make some sort of big seat mount out of wood or something.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Franki-100ESL72,<br /><br />The pole and base should work OK for you, if you have the load spread out.<br /><br />You may want to consider "glassing" the board down to the floor.

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

yeah, glassing it in is probably the best idea, but right now I just want to get on the water, I am on a deadline, we have to go out on the boat on the 26th (jan)and I have a heap of work to do before then.<br /><br />So I had a thought, if I make an X with two pieces of hardwood, and router then out so they fit together flush as an X, and put the seat mount in the middle, that would give support for side to side and back and front, kinda ugly, but should work alright till I'm prepared to do something with the floor.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Instead of wood you might consider a piece of aluminum plate several feet square.<br /><br />c/6<br />Hooty

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

The ally would have to be very thick to flex less then 1.5 inches of hardwood.. but a metal plate was my first thought.. If I had a decent slab of Stainless, I'd try that first....<br /><br />Like I said, its only a temp fix till I redo the floor.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Franki-100ESL72,<br />Have you considered a flange type pedestal base insted of the pole base? This is what I use for the captains seat on my boat. (I weigh 260 lbs. and it's rock solid). The advantage of the flange is that it doesn't require a hole in the deck. It's also much wider than the pole bases. They're not cheap, so all of the other seats in my boat are pole type . Of course, the disadvantage is that it's not moveable, but I never plan to move the captains seat anyway.

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Hi Joe, <br /><br />can you describe what you mean by a flange mount??<br /><br />what does that look like?<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

I'll try to post a picture of one when I get home from work tonight.

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Here's a picture of one that I got right off of the iBoats Marine Mega Mall area. <br />

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Franki,<br /><br />What Joe posted keeps you from having to cut a hole in the floor. However, you still have to spread the load out. Or, not lean!

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Fanki,<br />Djohns is right of course. How big is the base plate that you have now? The one in the picture is about 9 inches in diameter. Mine is fastened to a 3/4 inch plywood deck also. Like I said, I weigh about 260 lbs. (that's at least 115 kg the last time I looked at a metric table). I don't understand why it would creak. If the mount is positioned directly over a stringer, it seems to me that would only add to the support of the pedestal. <br />I assume that the deck is in good shape, no rot, correct?<br />For what it's worth, on my last boat (a fiberglass runabout) I had the same type of flange captain seat. The base had stanless steel screws to hold the flange to the deck all the way around except for one. In one of the holes was a machine threaded lug that protrruded from the deck. I'm not sure how it was fastened to the deck, but it may have been secured to the stringer under the deck. I'm not sure I would recommend that as it would probably compromise the water tight seal on the stringer. The stringers in my boat finally did rot, but most do.<br />Anyway, that seat was also as solid as a rock. It's this is something to consider anyway.

Re: Boat Seat mounting bracket.

Hi Djohns and Joe,<br /><br />The flange plate looks nearly identical to mine, except as you stated mine has the removable pole that requires the hole.. (no big issue, I had to make the whole anyway, so the hole with the spacer is enough to clear the stringer..)<br /><br />The floor is in good condition, but its not like the floors that I normally see. (for one thing its not glassed in, its bolted down..) It seems to have been designed that way.. the hull seems to be made in such a way that the floor need not be a structual member.. (although the back 2.5 feet of the floor under the splashwell is really thich glass.<br /><br />I have not seen a floor like that before, but I plan on glassing it in later on. (technically I will replace it and glass it in.)<br /><br />There is abit of slop between the actual floor bracket mount and the pole, not much, but it makes the problem worse.. (I also weigh 115kg).<br /><br />It doens't matter, I have reinforced it as best I can, and as long as it lasts for a few months, it will be fine, at that time I will start replacing the lot with a nice glassed in floor.<br /><br />pain in the butt this is... but I'll deal with it.. going fishing all weekend, gonna sleep out on the water.. so don't have allot of time to spend on it.. if it comes off, I'll sit on a milk crate. <br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki