removing seats from a tinney

[jeffo]

hey guys i have a 4.1M quintrex dory and i want to rip out the front and back seats so i can install pedestal seats to allow more fishing room. does any one know what i need to do to make it work (so the sides wont bow). do i need to get extra ribs put in? thanks in advance.

[ANYFISH]

gday mate
the best way to do it would be to pull the seats out then put the floatation from the seats plus a bit more under a full floor. then you can have a few holes through the floor for your seats. the frame for the full floor should be enough to hold the quinnie together.

the only problem with this method will be stability. i have got an older modle quintrex bass and i dont know if i should do this to mine. it might make it a bit unstable.

if anybody knows about stability when this modification is done i would like to find out.
cheers anyfish

[afro]

Jeffo,
I'd be talking to either quintrex or a boat builder/repairer who has had experince in this process. Taking the seats out would reduce the strength of the hull, in models which have pedestal seats in them (ie trophy models) the strengh comes from the increased ribs in the floor and sides.

Good Luck,
Cheers Justin.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeffo,
I don't think ripping the seats out would be a good idea. Most small boats really need them as a tie to keep the sides from buckling outwards (and stop your boat from folding in half and looking like the world's biggest pipi )

Although I don't know what the construction of your dory looks like, why don't you just install the pedestal seat through the existing seat.
In my tinnie, aluminium pipe about a foot long with welded flange installed through bench seat (pipe runs down into the foam underneath the bench seat, flange screwed down flat on top of bench seat) then seat is mounted on another pipe that fits inside this with a stopper or spacers fixed to the seat mounting pipe at the desired level you want the seat. Seat pivots, and Bob's your nonexistant uncle!
Mind you, it is handy if your brother is a fitter and turner and he knock all this stuff up custom for you!
I'm curently working in the philippines, and my tinnie is sitting in Northern NSW but might have a picture or two with me here that I could scan and post if the above description isn't clear enough.
Cheers,
jeff

[Kerry]

Not a good idea removing those seats without some major considerations to re-establishing support for the sides.

Cheers, Kerry.

[jeffo]

thanks for the input guys.. but as mentioned in my first post i assumed i would need to put extra ribs in.. the main reason i wanted to get the seats out was to maximise fishing space.

[Jeremy]

I pulled the seats out of my 4.3 m Stessl tinny to convert it into a centre console. I took it to a marine engineer who put two new cross braces in at the rear and one at the front. These new braces also serve to support the new full floor. With the centre console it was a big improvement on the old configuration and heaps more room in the boat. I am in Brisbane - pm me if you want the name of the engineer I went to.

Jeremy

[Dr_Dan]

Jeffo.

you considered putting in a floor? Mate did it with his 12 foot v-nose punt, and now he's got more than enough room. The way he has done it is to make the space between the two bench seats (in the middle of the boat) a sunken floor. This is so that the stability of the boat isn't changed. Then from the front seat to the bow, he has made a hinged storage compartment, level with the seat. This is almost like a second raised casting platform. At the back seat, he's done the same. This is where he stores the fuel tank. What he ended up with, is a 12footer, full floor, lotsa storage, with two pedestal seats. He also made a removeable second floor for the middle that raised the floor up to the level of the front bench seat. this floor only goes half way back (in the space between the two bench seats). This enables a) a much larger casting platform and b) a HUGE amount of storage under the second floor. We have lived out of teh boat for 3-4 days, just storing all the unnecessary things under the false floor, leaving an uncluttered surface to fish from.

DId any of that make sense?????

I'll try to explain it better if anybody wants

cheers
Dan

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeffo,
What Dr Dan described above is almost exactly what I did to my tinnie earlier this year. The decks make all the difference to the available room in the boat. Just tried to post a pic but file was too large. Will work out how to reduce its size and get it up later.
Cheers,
jeff

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jeffo,

Here is a shot of the seat mounting I was talking about. My brother actually made the nylon stopper you can see in the photo by turning it on a lathe. If you cant get something like this as a stopper, use a length of pipe as a spacer between the flange at bench seat level, and the base plate under the raised seat. You would have to put some sort nylon washer between the pipe and flange to allow it to turn.
Another easier alternative is to just fix the seat and not have it pivoting. That would mean you would have to just make a round, flat, padded seat fixed in place and mounted on the raised pipe that you could slide around on, and forego the luxury of a back rest.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Here's a shot of the deck I put inbetween the two bench seats. Note that i went for a varnished timber finish with the black strips of stick-on grippy stuff (like sand paper) rather than carpet. Works great and easy to clean - don't go for glued down carpet in this lower deck area unless you like a stinking, wet, difficult-to-clean headache after every trip. I usually throw in a rubber mat or off cut of carpet (as seen in the photo) to put the esky on to stop it sliding around and to protect the finish on the wood.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

You can see my electrical switches in waterproof junction box here, with sounder mounting. You can see the middle wooded deck in the bottom right of the shot. I covered the front and top of the back bench seat with carpet. There is a raised deck between the back bench seat and the back of the boat with removable lids for storage underneath. The side board you can see runs from font to back and is used to mount the rod holders and is great for hanging a selection of lures on.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

dont know why the pic was delected on previous mail.
try again.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

lets try that again.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

And finally, here's one of the finished boat at Pindari dam earlier this year.
Some people have commented that they think the front and rear stainless steel electric cigarette lighters complete with map lights, are a bit much. What would they know!