While cruising home yesterday pm after a lovely weekend the helmsman seat bracket snapped with a bang. Anyone know how I might attempt repair? The seat is bolted onto the flybridge floor. There is no evidence on the cabin roof because of the headliner. Any ideas?
stonedeyhle@juno.com
cd28 flybridge helmsman seat, broken
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Tony Raymond
Re: cd28 flybridge helmsman seat, broken
The bolts that hold my seat brackets on are threaded into "T" nuts on the underside of the cabin roof. There is a large piece of 3/4" plywood between the head liner and the roof. The "T" nuts are embedded into the plywood. So, you should be able to just back out the the bolts from up above. Assuming of course they are not corroded in place. You may want to take the headliner down before you start.
Good luck.
Have you found a source for the brackets?
tony
tony.raymond@worldnet.att.net
Good luck.
Have you found a source for the brackets?
tony
tony.raymond@worldnet.att.net
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Walt Bilofsky
Re: cd28 flybridge helmsman seat; ventilation
The helm seats on my CD 30 are also bolted into nuts set into the flybridge deck, which on my boat is balsa cored fiberglass. I agree with Tony that you can probably just back out the bolts. If we're wrong, you can always remove the headliner. As for me, taking the headliner off is such a pain that when I take it down to pull wires to the flybridge, I usually put in some extras.
BTW speaking of wires and the flybridge - about a year back, I added some ventilation for those rough days when we drive from below. That's just when I need a cool breeze in my face - but the windows have to be closed to keep the ocean on the outside. So I cut a 4" hole in the cabin overhead, opening into the protected space under the flybridge console. I epoxied a plastic vent opening into it, and ran flex hose to a bilge blower installed off the flybridge deck. A two-way (DPDT) switch at the lower helm lets the blower either blow air onto the helmsman, or reverse and become an exhaust fan. The vent opening needs to be epoxied carefully so stray water on the flybridge can't leak in. Insect friends are excluded by a piece of window screen held over the blower opening using a triple length of tie-wrap. (Just take three normal length ones and insert each one into the next - you can make any size tie wrap this way.) With a grille to direct the air in a useful direction, and a teak trim ring, it looks and works fine. When it's cool, a draft can come in the vent even with the blower off, so the finishing touch was a circular disk of teak, held up by Velcro, to close off the opening when not in use.
Returning to the seat question - many of these seat supports - such as the support for the folding bench seat aft on my flybridge - is that they are made of aluminum but bolted with stainless hardware. This sets up a dandy electrode, and salt spray can lead to major league corrosion of the aluminum around the bolts. I haven't tried it, but suspect that some silicone seal or caulking around the bolts could slow the corrosion down considerably, if it's done well enough to keep the salt water from getting between the two metals.
When you say the "bracket" broke, do you mean the pedestal, or the bracket that holds the plastic seat onto the pedestal?
bilofsky@toolworks.com
BTW speaking of wires and the flybridge - about a year back, I added some ventilation for those rough days when we drive from below. That's just when I need a cool breeze in my face - but the windows have to be closed to keep the ocean on the outside. So I cut a 4" hole in the cabin overhead, opening into the protected space under the flybridge console. I epoxied a plastic vent opening into it, and ran flex hose to a bilge blower installed off the flybridge deck. A two-way (DPDT) switch at the lower helm lets the blower either blow air onto the helmsman, or reverse and become an exhaust fan. The vent opening needs to be epoxied carefully so stray water on the flybridge can't leak in. Insect friends are excluded by a piece of window screen held over the blower opening using a triple length of tie-wrap. (Just take three normal length ones and insert each one into the next - you can make any size tie wrap this way.) With a grille to direct the air in a useful direction, and a teak trim ring, it looks and works fine. When it's cool, a draft can come in the vent even with the blower off, so the finishing touch was a circular disk of teak, held up by Velcro, to close off the opening when not in use.
Returning to the seat question - many of these seat supports - such as the support for the folding bench seat aft on my flybridge - is that they are made of aluminum but bolted with stainless hardware. This sets up a dandy electrode, and salt spray can lead to major league corrosion of the aluminum around the bolts. I haven't tried it, but suspect that some silicone seal or caulking around the bolts could slow the corrosion down considerably, if it's done well enough to keep the salt water from getting between the two metals.
When you say the "bracket" broke, do you mean the pedestal, or the bracket that holds the plastic seat onto the pedestal?
bilofsky@toolworks.com