Older TI new adjustable seat

Hello everyone, this is my first post in the forum. I recently picked up a 2010 TI and have been having a blast on it. The only thing I wanted to do, was try another seating position. So I came up with a mount that allowed me to attach a folding stadium seat.

The seat is completely detachable, so I can go back to the original seats at any time. I used Yakattack rail mounts and a fabricated sliding mount to attach the seat.

The only area that I had to put some thought into was the starboard side. The centerboard takes up almost all of the space on top of the gunwale. The best solution I found was to remove the centerboard cover and fabricate a steel plate that sits below the cover and uses the four screws to attach it to the hull.

I used the steel plate as a mount for a sliding bracket to attach the forward part of the seat. A short section of Yakattack bracket was used to attach the rear part of the seat.

On the port side a single 12" section of Yakattack bracket was attached to the hull in order to attach the seat.

The seat mounts are two sections of 5/8" square tubing. What I ended up with is a range of about 3" of front to rear adjustment for the seat.

The seat itself is fabric supported by bungees, it is pretty comfortable. I know the seating position is quite high, but I am only planning to use it while sailing, so I am not too concerned about higher CG issues. If need be, I can fabricate a drop down mount. Sorry about the huge photos, not sure how to take care of that.

Today we took the TI out on Lake Havasu to test the new seats. I had also built and installed a main sheet riser to get the main sheet out of the face of the person in the rear seat. Since the seats had been raised, I also added a 2" riser to the rudder control. All in all the modifications complimented each other. We started out with winds out of the south at about 12-13mph, they increased to 16.1 by the end of the day. I buried the downwind ama a couple of times. The only thing I noticed was the shape of the sail seemed a bit too deep, I think I may need to shorten the main sheet riser about an 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Otherwise, I absolutely loved the way it handled and the ride was high and dry, thanks in part to a spray deflector designed by Gary Meyers installed around the front cross bar. I was able to stand up easily and get to the tramps. We were out about 4 hours and the whole time it was a comfortable ride. One plus was having a large storage area directly under you. Even with the higher CG, it was worth it. Can't say enough about a comfortable ride.

I've been searching high and low for a better seating solution for my 2011 TI. I like your concept here, but I'm concerned about how sitting that high would leave both me and the wife wide open to getting sail slapped!

My wife had been complaining about the main sheet annoying her every time we tacked before I changed the seats. So I built a main sheet riser from pvc using one of the several examples in the forum. That effectively raised the line above the head of the rear seat passenger. We tried out the new seating yesterday, we both like it. It made getting up and onto the tramp easy, no wet rear ends and a lot more comfortable. The CG is higher, so I am still a bit tentative in higher winds. I tend to reef the sail quicker. But, we have only had it out one time since I put in the seats, still getting used to it.

Today I took the seat mounts apart to inspect them. I noticed a slight bow to the front seat's rear mount. That caused me to ditch the 5/8" square tube and build stronger mounts from 1"x2" rectangular tube. Now both mounts are much stronger. The rail mounts and the steel plate under the centerboard cover performed perfectly. I weigh 175 and was up and down out of the seat while we were out. The rear seat mount did not bend, but I replaced both seat mounts because the smaller tubing was not sufficient. I will post again after testing the new mounts.

Nice work on those seat mounts!
I like the use of the the rail mounts and how you solved the lack of mount space next to the centreboard.
We also raised our seats and found the higher CofG wasn’t an issue. It also made hiking out on haka easier.

I've changed the mount design. I went through two other versions to arrive at this. I used 1 1/2" wide stainless steel along with adjustable industrial legs to mount the seats. This design dropped the seat bottom 2 inches below the gunwales. It also spreads the load of the seat and passenger from just the gunwales, to the bottom of the seat tub as well. This provides about 83 square inches of support for the seats. Now I have a comfortable ride, lower CG, and hopefully a lower possibility of cracking because the load is better distributed.

I found the same stadium seats for my 2014 TI ($55 each on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y1H1SVS?ps ... ct_details), but I came up with a different way of mounting them in the boat that can be done with simple tools and items easily found at a hardware store. I used a combination of ideas that I had seen in other posts and a YouTube video, but I think my design is unique. Items needed are 2 pieces of wood, one 4 ft. length of 1" PVC pipe (more than enough for this project), 4 PVC pipe end caps and 4 T-joints, plus PVC glue and 8 stainless bolts/nuts/washers. Tools I used were a table saw for rabbet cuts in wood pieces (which could have been done many other ways), drill driver, chisel, and hand saw or power saw for cutting PVC and wood pieces to length.

Here's what they look like in the boat.

Here they are folded down - they're low enough that the mast can lay on top of them.

The forward support on each seat is a piece of wood (about 1 1/2" wide by 1" high) cut to length, with a rabbet cut at each end. The aft supports are made of 1"PVC pipe. I meaured everything, cut all pieces a bit big, and used a belt sander to fine tune. This is the forward seat.




The easiest way to assemble is to make the front and back supports to fit the hull, and then take the seat fabric off the stadium seat (it's tied on with shock cord, so easy to remove), place the seat on top of the supports with the back up, and then drill holes for the bolts. Nice to have a helper to hold everything steady for this step. I added an extra piece of PVC inside the end of the T just for extra strength when bolting to the seat.


Front seat rear support measurements:




The end caps for the 1"PVC pipe fit perfectly into the drain holes of the TI, but I drilled holes in them to allow water to go through (I got this idea from a YouTube video). I glued the horizontal pieces, but never glued the vertical pieces for the "feet" in case I ever want to change the height. This height seems pretty comfortable, so I haven't changed it yet.


The rear seat was resting on the wooden support piece at an angle, so I chiseled and sanded a groove in the wood to make it sit flatter.




Aft seat rear support measurements - a little narrower than the front seat (be sure to label which seat is forward and which is aft when you're done, because they're not interchangeable):




And a bit of a velcro strap, which hopefully will keep me from losing the seats in case of capsize (I haven't tried it yet!).


This was Mach 2 for seat upgrades for me. I bought two of the Attwood seats some years ago, but the problem was that the covers and foam always got wet, requiring me to take the covers off and dry them out after almost every sail. Also they were pretty bulky and heavy to tote around, and I couldn't rest the mast down on the boat, even with the seat backs folded down. These seats are much lighter, dry easily, and can stay in the boat when the mast is down. They are quite sturdy, although I'm not sure they would be sufficient for someone weighing much more than 200 lbs. We tested them out on an island camping trip in Maine in August, and they were very comfortable, even on a day we were sailing for 6 hours. Also they give you a nice little space below the seat for storing items. Almost at good as the seats on the 2015+ TIs!

Ready to go in Maine:


Back home with the mast down:


Cover on:

Nicely done!

Excellent designs, sitting in a puddle was always an issue with the older boats. These are the best solutions I have seen.

I have that same seat on my 2012 outback best bang for the buck.