heylouie00
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- Apr 9, 2010
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I've been lurking here for a while and since I used some of the ideas here for inspiration I thought I would post some pics of the projects that you guys helped me with.
Sorry for the long post, but here goes...
I bought a 4x8 sheet of Seafoam starboard from TAP plastics, which was little over $300 plus tax. So, the starboard, plus misc fasteners, the piano hinge, etc. and all of the projects below were probably a bit over $400 total.
First order of business was to try to clean up the mess that was behind the bench seat. I've seen various rod mounts, but I had two criteria: must hold at least 6 rods and should not alter the boat in any way (in case I wanted to remove it or a future owner hated it or whatever)
I disassembled the seat and removed the back from the bench. Other than matching the angle(s) of the hull, this has probably been the most challenging part. I did not want to drill anything to mount the seat back and right now it is attached with industrial strength velcro, which is less than ideal. So, please suggest alternatives to mount the seat back to the pilot house or convince me its OK to drill into the pilot house to mount it.
Anyway, the rod locker is essentially two side plates that go between the seat base and the hull. There are stringers, so to speak to make a box structure top and bottom on both the seat and hull sides. The box structure then mounts to the seat base with qty 3 - 1/4-20 fasteners at each end. It would be easy to drill down into the floor as well as attach the stringers to the seat base, but I did not and it does not seem necessary. We'll see.
Next, I added a lid, because - out of sight=out of mind. The lid has rails on the underside that locate it within the box. The lid is held down by simple bungee loops over cleats that are fastened to the side plates.
The next project was a tackle locker to make use of the dead space above the stock box below the captains chair. Again, simple box structure that slid over the box, screwed down onto the box and can hold 10 large plano boxes and 5 (or 6) of the smaller plano boxes (on the left). It is a little unfinished, as the door is just a piece of starboard that hinges with a piano hinge and has slam latches, but no pull handle. It looks clean, but you have to grab the upper edge to open it, seems OK for now.
The box comes out almost flush with the throttle controls so, I'm effectively using previously wasted space and it is not even noticeable from the captains chair, i.e it doesn't stick out enough to rub against your leg or anything. Although, If I had it to do over again, I would change the dimensions slightly, because the captains seat has to be rotated for the door to open fully (the seat is removed for the pictures below)
The front of the stock storage box was modified to open up the access since the top is now blocked. The scraps from the cut-outs were cleaned up and used as fire extinguisher mounts. The plates were attached to the pilothouse by using longer fasteners for the external pilothouse grab bars.
I'm pretty happy with the results for now, but I'm looking forward to getting your feedback, so fire away. I'm also planning on putting them to the test as our salmon season just opened for the first time in several years. We'll see what works and what doesn't.
More to come...
Sorry for the long post, but here goes...
I bought a 4x8 sheet of Seafoam starboard from TAP plastics, which was little over $300 plus tax. So, the starboard, plus misc fasteners, the piano hinge, etc. and all of the projects below were probably a bit over $400 total.
First order of business was to try to clean up the mess that was behind the bench seat. I've seen various rod mounts, but I had two criteria: must hold at least 6 rods and should not alter the boat in any way (in case I wanted to remove it or a future owner hated it or whatever)
I disassembled the seat and removed the back from the bench. Other than matching the angle(s) of the hull, this has probably been the most challenging part. I did not want to drill anything to mount the seat back and right now it is attached with industrial strength velcro, which is less than ideal. So, please suggest alternatives to mount the seat back to the pilot house or convince me its OK to drill into the pilot house to mount it.
Anyway, the rod locker is essentially two side plates that go between the seat base and the hull. There are stringers, so to speak to make a box structure top and bottom on both the seat and hull sides. The box structure then mounts to the seat base with qty 3 - 1/4-20 fasteners at each end. It would be easy to drill down into the floor as well as attach the stringers to the seat base, but I did not and it does not seem necessary. We'll see.
Next, I added a lid, because - out of sight=out of mind. The lid has rails on the underside that locate it within the box. The lid is held down by simple bungee loops over cleats that are fastened to the side plates.
The next project was a tackle locker to make use of the dead space above the stock box below the captains chair. Again, simple box structure that slid over the box, screwed down onto the box and can hold 10 large plano boxes and 5 (or 6) of the smaller plano boxes (on the left). It is a little unfinished, as the door is just a piece of starboard that hinges with a piano hinge and has slam latches, but no pull handle. It looks clean, but you have to grab the upper edge to open it, seems OK for now.
The box comes out almost flush with the throttle controls so, I'm effectively using previously wasted space and it is not even noticeable from the captains chair, i.e it doesn't stick out enough to rub against your leg or anything. Although, If I had it to do over again, I would change the dimensions slightly, because the captains seat has to be rotated for the door to open fully (the seat is removed for the pictures below)
The front of the stock storage box was modified to open up the access since the top is now blocked. The scraps from the cut-outs were cleaned up and used as fire extinguisher mounts. The plates were attached to the pilothouse by using longer fasteners for the external pilothouse grab bars.
I'm pretty happy with the results for now, but I'm looking forward to getting your feedback, so fire away. I'm also planning on putting them to the test as our salmon season just opened for the first time in several years. We'll see what works and what doesn't.
More to come...
