In preparation for our departure, there are several projects that each of us want to complete. Mine was the helmsman seat cushion.
On our last trip to Harbor House in Galveston , Texas, I was at the helm. Rather than stand all the time, one does like to sit down once in awhile. I couldn’t fine the make shift cushion that we had been using for the past two years. It was nothing more than a small sunbrella cover with a draw string in the bottom edge so you could stuff it with a couple small pillows. Since I couldn’t find it, I grabbed one of our pick-up-and-go chairs that we had purchased at West Marine. Aside from the fact that the seat portion was about five inches to long, it was surprisingly comfortable! I had Damon try it out and he agreed , but thought it rather impractical because it kept sliding around, and the seat wasn’t wide enough to completely cover the actual helmsman seat itself. So I took over the helm again, and while I sat there, I thought. Thinking…creating in my mind how to make this work. It wasn’t long before I had the problem solved.
When we had returned to the marina, I brought my friend Pam over and told her of my plan. I needed some conformation on the idea. Pam has a canvas shop here in Kemah. She, like me, with a little explanation, has the ability to see a project completed in her mind. So all I needed was someone to agree with my idea that this would indeed work. Pam was gracious enough to let me have free reign of her shop, while she went with her husband Dan, went to Florida to captain a charter in the fishing tournament near Key West. With the shop now to myself, I went to work.
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I purchased another on of the chairs at work and took it to the shop. I striped the covering off and broke out the electric knife. I cut off 4 ½ inches off the seat length. This exposed the metal bar structure of the chair. I then took our roto zip with a grinding attachment and cut off the exposed curved bar back to the foam edge. Then I pealed the foam back another five inches and cut another 4 ½ inches of the bar on each side of the seat. The I reattached the curved bar that was cut off with nylon double barbed hose attachments. Now all I had to do was glue the foam back on with Super 77. Then with some scrap foam that was in the shop I glued two more pieces to each side of the seat to make it a total of six to seven inches wider.
While the glue was drying I traced the outline and proceeded to make a cover for the seat. So that the seat will tie in with all of the other projects that have been done here on Bruadair, the cover had to be a tailored look. I have never been one to take the easy way out. I always seem to have to take the more difficult route. It must be something inherited. I did get the cover made, now all that was needed was to connect it to the actual helms-men seat on the boat. Of course as with most of the projects that we have done, the original idea never seems to work out just right. I had intended to use twist locks to secure our new seat cushion to the helmsman seat top, but my measurements were a bit off. And I’m glad that they were, because the end product turned out to have a cleaner look to it. I ended up having to add two inch webbing straps with another piece of sunbrella to the bottom of the cushion. This then allowed me to put the twist locks on the underneath side of the actual helmsman seat. Now they are completely hidden.
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The cushion is now attached and doesn’t slide around on us. The advantage now it that we can still get under the helmsman seat without taking the cushion off. This was an added bonus.
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