Thanks again for the encouragement. It seems to me that the nice thing about aluminum boats is that once they are stripped out, they are a blank canvas to do whatever you want to them, either stay original or do something completely different. A glass boat does not allow as many personal touches without a whole lot more work since a lot of the parts removed when getting down to an aluminum bare hull are molded into the glass boat. We can give our whims and preferences free rein. I was going for a clear deck so I can use snap in carpeting over it, thus the folding furniture not attached to the deck.
The side panels are teak and holly 1/2" ply. The stuff can be outrageously expensive, but I got a great deal on leftovers of it and a lot of teak lumber of various dimensions that were surplus to a well-to-do guy's sailboat rebuild when he put it all on Craigslist. I still have enough 3/4 thick planks to do some rear sliding doors and a bit more trim here and there. I like the fact that the dimensional teak can be treated with teak oil for less maintenance than varnish. I did varnish the side panels. ( Called ceilings, oddly enough, in boat jargon)
The chairs are very comfortable. A bit like Herman Miller office chairs. They are a bit wider than I would like, and take up a bit of valuable space near the cabin door, but not unnacceptably so. I think they will be great during hot weather, but I may need to throw a towel over the mesh during the shoulder seasons to be a bit warmer. Still, the manufacturer started out in business making similar tree stand chairs so they do stand up to abuse. They are white so I had to be careful about dirty work hands during installation, but the manufacturer recommends 409 to clean if necessary. I hope being able to remove them when not in use will help with keeping them nice. I could have gotten them in gray. The helm seat slide worked out well and does what I intended, allowing for comfortable sitting up close and moving back for standing and using the seat as a leaning post. It did require some thought because of the stack height of detachable swivel and slide, plus the seats are pretty tall anyway because of the underpinnings. The mounting extensions I made had to be different port and starboard due to differing seat heights. I have seen folding legs that can be used with boat seats, and I thought that putting extra QD brackets on them might allow me to use the seats off the boat when going ashore for lunch or a visit. I am going to use folding canvas chairs in the back for the occasional time we have more than two in the boat. I may put in another set of folding brackets to use for a table in the rear. We'll see.
Andy, I do have an anchor light, a generic Perko one, since my original was pretty wasted. It is not wired up yet and is folded down against the windshield.
Ron
