Seats in your 18

I'm restoring my 18 and I don't have a clue what i'm doing as far as the interior goes.. I ski with the Sarasota Ski-A-Rees so the boat will be used for show skiing. I would like to have a bench for the observers seat but I don't know if it's wide enough. If any of you have an observers bench please send me pictures. Even if you don't and you have time to send me pictures of what you have, that would be great! :evil: Disgruntaled Hydrodyner :evil:

 

Sounds like Riverrat's boat would be your model. Lots of pictures of it on this website.

 

Here are the seats that were supplied by Tom Miller (fiberglass products and boat repair) when I bought my dyne from him last spring.

He can get any color you want, and could probably do something a little more custom if you like.

If you like what you see, call him at 260-337-5636. Ask for the seats he put in the 18 foot dyne last spring for the River Rats. Drivers bucket with sliding base and passenger bench.

If I were to do it again, I would probably add a few inches (3-4) in width to the passenger bench and mount it so it extends to the left a little more. As shown, the seat is almost as far left as it can go due to the base and the curvature of the hull. It would be nice to be able to get the edge of the seat closer to the side of the boat.

 

The bench seat does have a hinge and lift up so you can store things underneath as well.

I don't mind it the way it is, but people with less experience in round bottom boats have suggested that a lower passenger seat would be nice as well. For some reason they think they would be less likely to fall out of the boat if it were a couple inches lower. I like it where it is though. It's high enough where it's not too tough to get down and back up for rope changes etc... and low enough where you can easily grab the handle and lean into the gunnel a bit for stability. Since your use will be for a ski team mainly, I would suggest staying with the same height I have.

And another note on the width. With the way it is now, you can kind of fit 2 people on it, but neither one really gets a full butt worth of horizontal space. A few more inches would help that dramatically. And it's nice to be able to haul two spotters up front for keeping the bow down and pinning multiple skiers.

Oh yeah, and you mentioned you were not experienced with mounting etc.... The seats will come with stainless screws and washers from Tom. Just screw them into the floor. Be carefull near the outer edges of the boat, as the screws he gave me were more than long enough to go through the outside of the hull at the side so I used some shorter ones there.

 

The seats in my boat are Veada low back helm seats. They are on swivels so the two left side seats can be swiveld to both face forward or both face backward, or a club arrangement. It has really worked out great, because I can get everyone facing forward when out just driving around.

My one complaint about the Vead seats is that the base is made of plastic (where it mounts to the swivel brackets) and therefore the seats are wobbly. There is no structural issue - but the wobbly seats always lead everyone to believe that they are not sturdy. In fact they are, but the wobbly seats are disconcerting.

You can see a picture of the set up on various places here - in particular on the preview for the Hydrodyners Calendar (it is the November boat).

MarkBano

 

The seats in the 18 are important from a performance standpoint. The limiting factor in the 18's performance as a tow boat is the pitch up at the initial pull. There are several ways to help it but basically we need to minimize the weight in the stern and maximize the weight in the bow, but not by adding ballast. A motor with a lot of tuck and a stern lifting prop also help.

The seats in my boat are the originals and since the drivers seat is not a bucket and is narrow, it allows room for a nice wide observers seat that will accommodate two people and still allow room for the driver to step between the seats. There is also room for a boat cushion on the floor sort of between and behind the two front seats allowing even more weight up front.

jim

 

Greg

 

RiverRat - Your seat set up is exactly what I'm looking for! I tried to contact Tom Miller and did not get an answer. I left a message so hopefully he will call me back. My whole point was to try to get two people in the observers seat.

Dynegreg1 - I do like your set up. Larry Brunners 18 has your set up but I'm really just trying to get a 2nd observer to be able to sit there when needed.

Jim - I like you bench as well. I like the fact that everything is white. If you know anyone that sells something like that, the information would be great.

 

Seats like mine would have to be fabricated. They are simple structurally. The upholstery part is complex on mine, but it would not have to be.

You rarely see them restored to the original configuration. It is just easier to bolt in new seats. I like them so much that I re-did them. As I said before, you can get four people in the very front of the cockpit which really helps with the pitch-up issue.

jim

 

I threw away the original seats that I had when I bought mine. (They were absolutly horriable condition!) I had a double version of what you have as the drivers seat which does not really work in my application. If I had your set up, I would have restored them.