Nordhavn 40 and helm chair
Hi Peter,
Do you have some experience to back this up?
I'd guess the PO goes about 275. The helm chair is an oversize Bentley on a
Garelick 3" aluminum pedestal. Ten years plus and then from Alaska around
Cape Stiff to Rhode Island, I'd say this gear has stood the test on a
passagemaker. I've been looking at these ridiculously-priced Stidd and other chairs and
although I'm sure I'd like one so as to impress my pals, I'm afraid I'd fall
asleep on watch!
That's why it's called standing a watch, you know. :-)
Regards,
John
"Seahorse"
Peter wrote:
Helm chair: Agree with Maurice Nunas - good, but not
essential. But, if you have a helm chair, make sure
it's a good one with a big-diameter, heavy duty base
(Stidd, Pompano, etc). The cheaper ones with 3"
aluminium bases have no place in the pilothouse on a
passagemaker.
In our experience we have never seen a pedestal, i.e. the tube, fail. The
interface at the post/base will corrode so this can be a problem but not
often unless the assembly is exposed.
Most often it is the base mounting that fails. The bases are either screwed
into the fibreglas or fastened with puny bolts with small washers behind.
Any aluminum base need insulating paste between the base and the mounting
bolts so it doesn't corrode. This includes the $1200 Stidd powder-coated to
match your dicor 4" super duper post/base. Install it with SS bolts, nick
the powdercoat and it will corrode faster than a cheap anodized one.
Any decent base installation needs a backing plate half again as large as
the base diameter and sandwiched to solid material. There's lots of leverage
with John's PO at 275 lbs swinging on the end of a 2-3' post. All this
leverage is trying to lift & pull the mounting fasteners thru the backing
material.
So I'd say a good installation will make a cheep unit work well and a poor
installation will make an expensive unit fail...I think there's a theme here
;-)
On the top side the swivels and slide plates do need to be up to the task.
It was only recently that the ABYC wants the swivels to have positive
locking detents so that the chair can't just twist under load. Not many
manufactures have these yet but a few do.
Lots of folks out there make very good helm seats and you'll never see them
at consumer boat shows. They don't charge enough ;-) They also don't offer
Ostrich leather or ultra leather...usually just plain durable heavy expanded
vinyl's, naugahide or equivalent or cloth.
As always, YMMV
On the other part of this we have two matching helm chairs in the PH. And we
don't have a wheel....yipes! The starboard side has most of the electronics
but both sides have helm control and viewing of the screens. This is not all
completely retrofit yet but is happening at light speed as I write
this....well, light speed for the Caribbean which might be a tad bit slower
than elsewhere ;-)
Dave & Nancy
Swan Song
Roughwater 58
Tortola, BVI
In our experience we have never seen a pedestal,
i.e. the tube, fail.
I'll copy/paste an offline note I made to similar
comment about whether I had experience to back-up my
opinion. My personal boat does not have a chair,
barely has a seat and that's not adequate really. But
it wouldn't stop me from taking it anywhere I wanted
to go.
Peter
www.SeaSkills.com
Willard 36 Sedan
San Francisco
=====================
"I assume you're talking about my comment that if an
owner opts for a helm chair, make it a stout one. And
yes, I was comparing it to the Todd/Garlick types
commonly available in the West Marine catalogue.
"Here's my experiences. Heading north along the
Pacific Coast is usually fairly bumpy, sometimes
downright rollicking. I remember one trip from San
Diego to Ilwaco (mouth of the Columbia River) a couple
years ago on a custom PH boat that had an inexpensive
Todd chair. At the beginning of the trip, there was a
little bit of play in the chair where the spider rests
on the post. By the end of the trip, there was so much
slop it was like balancing upon a telephone pole in a
stiff breeze - everyone aboard was 200+ pounds and it
just wore the fittings out. It was truly annoying by
the end of the trip because you couldn't brace
yourself in the chair at all.
"Contrast that experience to a trip from Colon Panama
to Ft Lauderdale in a PH boat with a pair of Pompano's
in the PH. It was early spring and it blew 25 knots on
the nose for the entire 5 days as we zigzagged around
the Caribbean looking for better water and a wind
shift that never came. It was great to be able set
your butt in the seat and brace your heels on the
dashboard to stabilize yourself.
"But those are both offshore (or near coastal
experiences) of 5 days or more - deliveries. Most
folks don't use their boats like that. It's a personal
choice whether $5K for a Stidd is worth it. Or, as Ron
Rogers points out, some other option. If you're gonna
have a helm chair, make it a good one.
"My opinion, that's all. Granted, it's not my wallet
on the line so it's easy to have an opinion. But I can
understand when Stidd is in business."
I didn't mean to jump on anyone re the high price vs. the low price
pedestals
They all are only as good as their installation/maintenance. I have a very
nice Pompano seat with a spider/slider sitting in my shop right now. The
spider swivel lock is frozen in the aluminum piece from corrosion and the
slide release has the same problem.
Makes the chair not very useful and it's a very upscale chair. The corrosion
was caused by lack of maintenance by the owner.
On the Todd chair was the spider lubricated before you left? Was the chair
left loose so it could swivel? Did it swivel in rough seas? Was the nylon
bushing worn already from the swivel being left loose?
I don't know the answers but all are on the list of do's and don't on any
chair/pedestal before putting it to hard usage, IMO. Especially on a long or
rough passage.
Again installation and maintenance are the key to this along with the other
three mile long list of stuff to keep up ;-)
As always, YMMV
Dave
Swan Song
Tortola, BVI