Hysucat jocky seat project

gavin · 19 January 2003, 17:50

Since Oct myself and Tim have being building two jockey seats for the rib, the problem being, we moved our bench seat foreward to make room for the jockeys.In doing this we incorporated a third 50 lt fuel tank foreward and moved our batterys to the middle of the boat to shift weight foreward.Tim has more recent pics of the seats in situ and will post these as replys on this thread.

gavin · 19 January 2003, 17:53

As the last pics shows the seats were cast in a mdf mould, the mold was filled sanded profiled and primered, we sprayed it internally to give a glass finish like car paintwork, this was before we started to make the seats.

gavin · 19 January 2003, 17:57

The two seats were cut from the frayed ends of the seat and Tim set them to a ply base we had prepared with woven roving matt , to give strenght to the ply, we resined the base with a couple of coats of resin and routered the edges.In addition to this we flow coated the ply base board.Tim glassed the seats to the base with matt, this was a difficult job as he had to work tro an entry made in the side of the seat before we fitted the hatch.

gavin · 19 January 2003, 18:00

Hatches were cut sized from the Plastemo catalogue, fitted after a coat of flo coat was given to the inside of the seats.In addition to this Tim reinforced the rear end of both pod seats in order to bolt tro back rests which we hope to fit soon.

Charles · 19 January 2003, 20:58

Excellent work guys - can't wait to see the finished product. Did not like the bench seats on my Hysucat.

Charles · 19 January 2003, 21:00

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gavin · 19 January 2003, 21:11

Thanks Charles I am impressed with the cover on your Hysucat this must be what the plastic mouting lugs on our ropes are for, the console has your controls recessed into it this, is different from ours as the sticks are the same level as the wheel Tim took some shots today so they will be up soon gavin

Mike Garside · 20 January 2003, 08:50

Nice thread, Gavin. This is just the sort of DIY thing that works, IMNSHO*, on the Gallery Forum.

Despite my advancing years (and because I now have the time to go out and play) I have become addicted to doing everything on my boat that I used to pay others to do for me.

My first attempts at glassing were a bit ragged. Good to see it done so carefully and skillfully by you two guys. Keep up the good work.

Looking forward to seeing you in Plymouth. But very sad you won't have the Hysucat with you. It is my intention to eventually build a 10m version of the Hysucat with an aft mounted cabin. The chance to take a close squint at yours was top of my priority list.

Still, we'll just have to come over to see you in action in Ireland. Won't we, Brian?

*you with me, Keith?

TIM · 20 January 2003, 09:08

Photos of the Jockey seats in the Rib, without back rests yet!!! they are still be made up.

TIM · 20 January 2003, 09:10

And One from the Back,

Mike, Sorry we are not bring the Hysucat with us, But The 800 mile tow Does not inspire us to much, Especaly with hangovers on the way back!!!!!!

matiboy · 21 January 2003, 18:50

excellent feature

need more of this sort of stuff on this site

exactly the sort of feature rib international could do with as well- a bit of real life

Daniel · 21 January 2003, 19:55

Looking good guys, as everyone has said nice to see a few pics along the way.

Once upon a time there was (i think) an offer of 'knocking a couple more out of the mould' in exchange for beer tokens? Any chance of that or have you been put off by the time involved?

Daniel

narked · 22 January 2003, 19:10

Where do you get the stuff for making this stuff up, and how much does it cost? Thinking of making the hulls for my RC RIBs out of fibreglass.

Looking good, keep us posted...

Cheers,
Matt

Manos · 22 January 2003, 19:16

Great Job. The set up and the seats Look just GREAT!!
Well done. I wish I was just as good as you!!
Pitty the cat wont make it in Plymouth was looking forward to see it

....and I dont give a s..t how much petrol costs either LOLOL

gavin · 22 January 2003, 20:34

Daniel we may produce another one or two, but the next really important thing is to give them a good old test, we hope to get the rib in the sea this weekend and will see what the seats work like, we are also waiting to have the backrests finished, these will just bolt on easily enough.The stuff to make fiberglass seats is very available, the mold is just mdf and we used easy sand filler internally in it, the two pack paints inside the mold are International products, the fiberglass resin we bought in a large 25lt drum with activator, matt chopped strand and woven roving matt,mixing bowls and a scales, actone thinners and actone resistant gloves,scissors some general tools measuring tape insulating tape knife, the relasing agent for the mold and wax to help release the seat from the mold, gelcoat filler and flowcoat, simple black and decker sander and plenty of sandpaper.Tim made a trip to a guy who works with fiberglass and he offered advice on what our material needs would be and we bought the specialised stuff from him the resin and the like.The biggest part of the project is time, we were at the mold for about 2 months of weekends, to get it perfect, and of course the inital cost is the biggest, once the mold is made you have it forever, seat molding takes about 4 days to cast , obviously this is a couple of hours a day and once they come out of the mold are cut down to correct height , wet and dried polished and mounted , this takes a bit of time ,but once again preperation is everything, and of course we did hit snags along the way, but the biggest commitment is time, cost wise, we kept pretty good records, I dont have the total right now ,but it did work out cheaper than buying them and they are custom made to our needs which is hopefully better, in the long run gavin

narked · 22 January 2003, 20:56

Cheers for the info Gav, let us know how the seats work out.
You gonna do a full write up once they're complete and tested?

Cheers,
Matt

Manos · 22 January 2003, 21:15

I also thank you for the info Gavin. I just wished I was as handy as you guys are!!
Who knows some day I may try it.

Pete7 · 09 February 2003, 18:42

Gavin, brilliant, just wish my console had worked. The MDF gave a reasonable finish but I used a plaster to round the corners of the mould off (female mould) several coats of PVA made the MDF release okay but the corners and edges stuck and mading a horrible mess. Left with the choice of grinding the edges back to glass then filling and painting of buying a new one I botled out and bought one. Might still fix the DIY one at some point but OCean Ribs in Portchester offered a great console for £400 so I opted for that instead.

As far as costs go, I used 5l of resin for every 5m of 450 g CSM. 5L of resin and CSM (chopped strand matt) is £20. To calculate the quantity, have a think about how much the final moulding is going to weigh. If its a big console then 30 - 40 kgs. Since the CSM weighs very little the weight must be resin, therefore a 30 kg console is probably £120 plus any ply re inforcement and the MDF mould. Get it wrong and its expensive plus hours of work laminating GRP.

So good one Gavin, look forward to seeing the rib out on the water.

Pete

Scotty · 10 February 2003, 10:38

Hey Gavin,
Made it from Howth to your boat in 15 minutes on Sunday..... very flat water in the bay. Very impressed with your boat, my kids want one of "those boats with the funny name and two engines on the back". Dont you love nortsiders.

jwalker · 10 February 2003, 20:44

I get mine from: Glasplies, 2 Crowland Street, Southport, Lancashire, PR9 7RL. Tel.01704540626. Fax.01704 537322
They are very good. Prices are about the best. They often have cheap drums of resin. They will send you how to do it instructions and other helpful literature free. They also keep specialist resins in stock, they're open 7 days a week and they mail order. What more could one ask for?
I've no connection. Just used them for years.
JW.