MacGregorSailors.com

I am toying with the idea of cutting the helm seat on on my .
Jeff

Mine is still box-stock but I voted "cut seat only."
That's my preference if I ever get 'round to it.

i would NOT cut the helm seat, i like it as it is. but i think about changing the angle of the steering wheel, to put it more vertical would also increase the space behind it. not the most urgent thing on my to-do-list though...

my seat is surface is unaltered.
however, i moved the hinges to the starboard side which now allows me free and open access to enter and exit from the aft port side.
i am only able to do this because my back stay goes down the center and is attached high on my arch.



Bob T.
"DaBob"
'02X w/ '04 90 TLDI

OOOO, Bobby-have you ever thought about adding a bench seat to that like on the Tomcat 9 catamaran?

midget wrote:OOOO, Bobby-have you ever thought about adding a bench seat to that like on the Tomcat 9 catamaran?

be careful...you're getting "off-topic".

TomCat Boats

to your point...i tried to incorporate seats under the arch but there's limited head & shoulder room.
you can "sorta" sit on each side of the rear end under the arch as it's currently configured.
to incorporate a bench seat like the TomCat-9.7 would limit my access to the rear.
besides...that's a 32 footer that's twice as wide when in the water.
and a mere $165K.

I decided to cut my seat off today. What a difference. I am glad I did. Now all I have to do is finish the underside of the back.
For those of you that have cut your seat, how did you finish this?

Jeff

Jeff,
Try browsing the mods pages. IIRC, somebody posted photo & info about cutting the seat.

Haven't modified it yet but intend to in two different ways:

1)

My plan is to cut completely through the back and the seat on a single plane at a slight diagonal. The port half would stay hinged as is existing. The starboard half would be hinged on the starboard side. The starboard half would have some support to hold it when it is down in the normal position for sitting on. The diagonal would allow the port half to "seat" itself on the starboard half when it is lowered for sitting on and it would need no other support.

The port half would have to be the first half raised (because of the diagonal) when boarding. It would be half as heavy and protrude half as far into the boarding pathway. The starboard half would only be raised if needed. Don't remember for sure but, maybe the backstay is not a problem because the seat is only half as long.

2)

My second plan cuts the seat from port to starboard about halfway to the backrest. The two pieces (remember, I already halved the whole seat) are piano-hinged to the backrest parts. This allows the front halves of the seat to be folded back so they don't rub on one's calves when standing at the helm. Folded back, they would provide about 3 inches of additional height to sit on to see over the cabin.

I've been really happy I cut mine off. However, I rarely operate the boat without the replacement seat in place. For me it wasn't a matter of gaining extra space for standing.

I cut mine off through the back. I then built a reversible replacement seat. It was inspired by the M seat. It has a flat surface that gives me exactly what I had with the stock seat, a smooth even cockpit, and it has a raised surface that gives much better forward visibility. It also adds some very useful internal storage. 90% of the time I use it in the raised position.

It is great to be able to have it out of the way when refueling, going in and out the transom to BBQ and access the dingy, etc. Having just the much smaller back to flip up is a big improvement. The factory cushion fits either side.

Here is the mod

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/cgi-bin ... record=351

My seat mod was the best thing I ever did on my 26X. I got rid 0f the stock seat completely. I left the hinge attached to the boat,and attached a 1x5 oak board with a corner bracket to keep me from falling out of the back. I bought a boat seat from kmart,and attached it to a 8 inch plank that fits were the old seat used to be. Its higher, and when you fold the back down to sit on, its really high. The really nice thing is, you can turn it around with the back near the steering wheel and your feet on the motor, its the best seat in the house. I can now see whats going on behind me at all times, and it lifts easily out of the way for swimming. Cost me about 30 bucks tops.

Jim, can you post some pictures.

Wish I could, but I don't have any of the stuff. What don't you understand? jim

As described previously (last year ) I did the complete reversal of hinge on the helm seat, and moved the backstay to the port side to avoid interference with the seat when raised. Normally, the part of the seat that is in the way when raised, on the stock set-up, is the bottom rear corner on the hinge side, but moving the hinge to the starboard side opens up the path completely clear on the port-side from the boarding ladder past the pedestal and to the cabin. Photos are there too.

I removed my back seat in 1998 and gave it to a fisherman on Hispanola, who seemed quite pleased with it. I kept the hinge and bolted a single burner gimballed Force 10 stove to it, which I use when at sea (nothing like having a hot cup of soup at 2am without having to get up from the cockpit wheel and going below to fix one). I do not use any type of protecting line across the space because I carry a Walker Bay Tender on davits & it provides all the protection I need to keep from falling out the back. MM