? for Buddy S.

[Roger Stouff]

Hey, Buddy...
Was thinking about your comments about Marsh Cat's seating. Looking at the plans, and remembering what you said about low freeboard, how high are the seats you installed from the floorboards? How comfortable are they for a person of average heigh (which is not me, I'm only 5'4"!)

Thanks,
R

[Tom Dugan]

OK, I'm not Buddy, but I kinda thought that Homer accurately captured the seating on a catboat. (See thread http://media5.hypernet.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=001496 to refresh your memories.) Doesn't look like it much matters once the thing gets going.

I'll butt out now.

-T

[Roger Stouff]

Don't you dare butt out!

I guess that's right, though. That's why I was wondering how Buddy handled it...sure don't like sitting on the coaming, and I don't think I'll like sitting on the floor, either. Knees are going.

Thanks!

R

[Buddy Sharpton]

Here's what I have done, and why. The 12' Beetle Cats have got to be the grandaddy wooden boat sailing class- thousands of them, and they don't have seats, you sit on the floorboards with the deckcoaming at the perfect comfortable height for your backreast, your non tiller arm can go over the coaming and rest on the deck to kinda give you an armhold to weather and the edge of the coaming doesn't cut off your circulation. The cockpit is huge ( for a 12 footer) like a big sandbox or playpen, so your crew just plops down anywheres- make yourself comfortable style. Honestly for having a bunch of folks aboard it works great and I would hate to lose that simplicity/capability.
Joel White had a Beetle Cat as a youngster and that Beetlecat cockpit arrangement, along with the Beetle's other three key features- the advantage of a flared bow for extra bouyancy going down the face of waves , which in turn permits a bit more foredeck, which in turn allowsa skinnier, lighter mast stepped a tad farther aft than the usual catboat which lightens the bow and thus has the room for and the need for two side shrouds, now stepped far enough aft to have a wide enough stance to be working at an effective angle, and a headstay to stiffen up the rig for better performance, which is slowed the least bit possible to windward by reducing the side area of the topsides and its attendent drag by keeping freeboard to a minimum and using the side decks and coaming for seakeeping -none of this seems thought unuseful by Joel as he has replicated all four elements in a bit bigger 15 footer. So I tread cautiously around changing it.

Mostly you do get done and stay down sailing in moderate wind with at least one passenger as you can helm from weather or lee side cause the boat is pretty stiff. More wind or by yourself you do need to stay on the high side as you tack- You can just slide across. Without seats of course-overnighting on the cockpit sole with an air mattress and a trap over the boom is WONDERFUL.

But I wanted seats for comfort on a twosome daysail so what I did was-

Bought four of those folding sport seats, and four throwable square seat cushions, Bulit a pair of three sided mahogany frames , with hinges at the corners so they can fold up and stow in the cuddy flat about five inches high. They are 1/4" bronze pins , two each in each side that fit in to holes drillrd in the gaps of the floorboards at the appropriate floors to hold these frames in to a rectangle and "lock" the rig into position on the cockpit floor. I have built 5" wide wooden storsge bins, also with bronze pins fitting inti the wooden box frame, twenty inches long which divide this 40" long rectangle in to two 17" wide cavities. Put a seat cushion in each cavity. Put the sportseat on the cushion- its 18" wide so it "smooshes" just right in the 17" wide hole, and its backrest comes up about 6" above the coaming. A bongee strap up from the floorboards, over the whole deal and back down to the floorboard holds the seats down to the frame, and the frame to the floor, You can lift the seats for the throwable and you get a nice little cubby bin behind the seats and under the side decks for loose gear like jackets and stuff. None of this takes any tools or any time to rig or unrig and it can all store in the cuddy so you can have room to take out more folks, or sleep aboard. It is about $400 worth of gear though.

[Buddy Sharpton]

Oh yeah- how high are the seats? About 7" on the inboard edge, about 5 1/2" on the outboard edge- sorta like the seats in a old Triumph or MG. The backrest is inclined also, and being 20" high or so, it's REAL comfortable. You can put your feet on the seat on the opposite side to brace yourself and get a real steamer deck chair effect. At anchor my wife and I can sit on opposite sides facing each other and with the 20" square cockpit floor anchor locker hatch pulled up from just behind the centerboard trunk and from betwwen the to seat assemblies and now resting on the tied off tiller( therer are brackets on the underside of hatch that fit the tiller), we have a neat cockpit table for cocktails or dinner. Really like it.

[Roger Stouff]

Wow, the descriptions sound great! When you get some pictures taken, I'd like to see that arrangement, too. No hurry, please! I probably won't get started building until mid- or late-summer. But I'm building it in my head all the time, you know?

'Course, if you get to Pass Christian, maybe I could see it then, too. ;)

Thanks, and any time I'm getting pesky, let me know!

Best,
R