Side Steps and Hike Out seating

[Maria CS20 104]

I am installing side steps on the aft decking to double as seating for hiking out. My coamings are 1 1/4" inch high and 1/2" thick as I doubled them during installation (yes on purpose f cause it looks neat). I am installing solid mahogany blanks 24" long on the deck side on the coaming which will make the coaming 1/4 " high for not so uncomfortable seating, and I can route the 1/4" down to the step/seat surface if it becomes and issue. I intend to cut kerfs in the step surface to make it look like planking and the kerfs will be deep enough to place black cord to make it look like deck stuffing/caulk. The idea is to cover the deck seams and make a practical step ad seat, and a little eye candy using the mahogany. I have installed toe boards, a bow sprit and a solid mahogany thwart seat that all have a beautiful ribbon grain. MY QUESTION IS: How far forward from the stern and how far aft of the oarlock should I install this little beasty? I am installing similar blanks on the forward side deck seams as well. I have cut the forward deck blanks and set them in place and they look pretty good in the raw and I expect they will be great when finished. All input is welcome. Pics coming.

[Peter HK]

Hi

I set my aft set of hiking seats so the front edge of the seats is about level with the mizzen mast. The aim is to be as far forward as possible to keep crew weight central. That is about as far forward as the hiking stick reaches (I finally bought an expensive extendable one as the fixed one was a bit of a stretch).

If I did it again I would raise the height of the seat to be just higher than the coaming....mine is level at 3/4 inch....as you tend to sit on the inner part with your legs angled down into the cockpit so you still feel the coaming a bit.

Cheers

Peter HK

[Ray Frechette Jr]

I have my coaming one inch above deck. That is high enough to sluice away any water that gets on deck and low enough that 3/4 inch hiking blocks are comfortable. I make blocks that are 18 inches long and are placed so that I use a deck mount oar lock socket in the middle of the block. IE the hiking block doubles as an oarlock block as well.

I scribe both the deck gunnel and the coaming onto the block so that there is about 3/8 of an inche clearance between block and coaming and 3/8 of an inch of deck exposed beyond the block.

I also have a block forward of the thwartseat about same distance for crew to hike out and scribe it the same manner. This makes for an odd shaped rectangle up front withthe curvature of the coaming noticeable in the inboard edge. Also I usually allow a wider gap between hiking block and coaming here to allow snotter, halyard and downhaul lines to run along deck between block and coaming.

Finally I scribe the outside edge of the block to 1/4 inch above deck and plane down to that line and keep 3/4 height inboard. This makes a slanted hiking block and conveniently cants oarlock sockets slightly. I also round over the 4 corners of the block and round over the top edges.

[Maria CS20 104]

Peter and Ray, do you have pics that might hepl me envision your approach on this?

Thanks, Jim

[Peter HK]

Hi Jim

I'll attach a couple of photos.

One shows the seat blocks shaped, routed, planed down and epoxied much as Ray described.

The others show the position of the seats from side on and also how the control lines run inside the forward seat.

Cheers

Peter HK

[Maria CS20 104]

Thanks Peter, beautiful boat, mine is almost there, just put the gunwales on to form up more before I remove, stain and reinstall. How tall are your masts? I am thinking I want 21 and 22 feet but I am not certian. It looks like yours are a bit higher than others I've seen.

Thanks Again

Jim

[Peter HK]

How tall are your masts? I am thinking I want 21 and 22 feet but I am not certian. It looks like yours are a bit higher than others I've seen.

I can't remember exactly but I did make them each about a foot longer than the plans as some on the forum had mentioned they wished they had made them a bit longer.

It certainly means you can raise the main high enough to get good vision under it on a light day. I never actually hoist them right to the top though and every so often think I should trim about 6 inches off the end but as it's doing no real harm this hasn't been a priority. Remember the snotter position would need to be higher if you raise the sails much higher (or have a couple of snotter attachment points)

Cheers

Peter HK