Help Fixing Captain Seat

[adamsanders]

I’ve noticed that the captains chair in my boat is getting extremely loose, to the point I know something will break if not addressed. At some point the previous owner “shimmed” the seat as seat in the pictures below with two pieces of wood but they have gotten loose and slid out. It looks like there are 4 bolts that go from the track into the fiberglass pedestal and I believe the nuts on the inside must have loosened up? Either way, I assume I need to remove the 10 or so screws around the bottom of the pedestal and then I can remove the entire assembly? Does anyone know what I can expect to see under the fiberglass pedestal? If anyone has advice or insight I would appreciate it. Thanks

 

[ThomW]

My initial guess would be that there will be wooden blocking of some sort under the pedestal, to which the pedestal attaches. You are correct that the seat will be through-bolted to the top of the pedestal. To fix the loose seat, you will need to remove the pedestal, so you can access the bolts that go through. Unfortunately, you never now what you will find when you start taking apart a boat that others have worked on or "fixed" before you.

Like I said though, normally, there will be wood blocks under the pedestal that are bolted to the floor. Then the base to the chair will be screwed into those blocks. then the chair is bolted to the pedestal.

 

[adamsanders]

Thanks for reply, that was my guess as well. The more I’ve thought about this though the more puzzled I am as to the original design intent. There must have been some sort of spacer where the wood is to allow the seat itself to slide on the tracks. The thru-bolts are in the track piece of the assembly and you can see the channel piece that slides is wrapped around this track. If you snugged the through bolts up the channel that slides would contact the fiberglass first before the base with bolts would. The wood is serving a purpose in that regard.