Seaspension install on a 228

[luckydude]

I am trying to keep fishing after a stroke in my brain. It ain't easy, an ocean that I would have thought was awesome before the stroke, makes my head feel like I'm gonna have another one. I'm desperately trying to find a way to keep fishing on the ocean, it's more or less all I have left at this stage of my life.

I bought a seaspension post and it showed up this morning, 1st pic below. I'm gonna document the install in this thread and, hope, that I'll keep fishing. Maybe this helps someone else.

I pulled the seat off, vacuumed all the crud out of the post, used a sharpy to draw the outlines of the inside of the old post, took the post off, drew what I thought was a centered cross, then drilled a couple of holes, put a hacksaw blade on the jigsaw and cut out the circle. That's the 2nd and 3rd pics.

Tried to dry fit it and the bead of the weld under the plate didn't fit, so I got a sanding gizmo and beveled the edge, that's the 4th pic.

After some trial and error, _perfect_ fit, the hole pattern matched, it's lined up perfectly. Very happy with that, that's the blurry 5th pic.

Started thinking about how to orient the seat, look at the last pic and you'll see that the seat is offset to starboard relative to the center of the steering wheel, I'm going to point the seat at the center of the steering wheel. Thought about offsetting the seat to port but that would move the seat into the walkway and that walkway is small enough.

As for fit, they did a fantastic job, the plate sits on top of the pedestal, the bottom of the column sits on the floor of the pedestal. Well done!

Next up, get some silicone, bolt it in place and move on to making a plate that attaches to the bottom of my existing seat and bolts to the pedestal. More pics coming for that.

 

[SeanC]

Nice. What model is that? I couldn't find a model 5566. Let us know how it goes.

 

[bcoco]

did they send the unit, looks like the 4406, with the bottom plate shaved on the one side already? and there is enough room underneath the pedestal not to cut into the fish box?
thanks for the posts.

 

[luckydude]

did they send the unit, looks like the 4406, with the bottom plate shaved on the one side already? and there is enough room underneath the pedestal not to cut into the fish box?
thanks for the posts.

It's a little bit custom. They cut the plate so it didn't overhang the pedestal and they got me to give them measurements so the bottom of the column exactly hits the bottom of the pedestal. I am amazed at how well it worked, the pressure from the unit is spread out over the top and the bottom of the pedestal. So no need to cut into the fish box.

I did go out last night after dinner and applied silicone and bolted it in place. Looks great.

I'll probably get it all together today or tomorrow and then I need to find a weather window to go try it out (my ocean was 10@9 yesterday, worse than a square ocean, ouch). Once I get out there, I'll report back how it does.