I have a 1990 so I do not have the door to the aft stateroom and with the chair out I was able to put a 50 qt electric cooler there and build a shelf behind it,I had room in front of the cooler for a wine cabinet. When I bought my boat I sat in that chair once what a waste of space

The chair was long gone from our boat when we bought it so have never missed it. Can't imagine needing it and if it was there I'd probably turf it. We keep the litter box for the two cats down there. There's more room than that but we just don't have anything else to put there.

I occasionally use mine, but not that often. I've seen that some folks remove the back by undoing the bolts under the seat. That allows the aft cabin door to open fully. I plan to do that but just haven't gotten around to it; like lots of other things ;)

I removed the back from my nav table chair years ago, but I almost never see the need to sit on what's left. The C36's starboard-side double seats are just too inviting and comfortable. And useful. Next time the batteries are out I'll take the rest of the chair out, too. (If I remember correctly, the inboard battery needs to be out in order to remove the chair mounting fasteners.)

Bud, your idea is especially funny because that's exactly what I've been thinking about doing! At the moment the kitty litter goes on the floor just inside the aft cabin door, but a good installation under the chart table, with a teak cover - and a discrete passageway for the cats - would be classy.

Wow, each to their own. I use mine all the time. I have a piece of ply to protect the table when i use it as a work bench and I sit in the chair and work on all manor of things. The chart table is my desk and the chair is confy for that and Oh yes, I use it while trip planning.

Aboard "[I]Encore[/I]", a 1992 "Mk I", but one of the first 'tri -cabin arrangements, we removed the chart table chair three years ago. We were in the process of replacing batteries, so once the 4-Ds were pulled, I 'finally' had access to the nut that secured the chair bracket and removed bracket and seat.

The plan was to install a shelf and a short vertical 'divider' mounted on the floor boards to create a multi purpose storage facility.

Catalina Yachts was VERY helpful in sorting through its 'left over' louvered doors and sent me...at very reasonable price...two slightly larger than needed, but easy to cut down to size to create 2 louvered doors that closely resemble other louvered cabinet doors aboard at boat that was 17 years old at the time.

The hard part was configuring a mock up...there are NO 90 degree angles ANYWHERE!!!!. Used some very nice teak ply (Hatteras Yachts supplies a local marine consignment shop) that closely matches the teak ply used by CY 17 years before!!. Some backing plates to bond the four ply pieces, some cleats to secure to existing bulkheads and floorboards, some hardware from West Marine, and hinges from Lowes...and it has all the appearances of a VERY professional job.

Created a wonderful storage area for heavier canned goods on the floor level and bulky, but lighter items on the shelf.

I may have photos that can be shared.

Should the 36/375 tech editors like a photo essay for Mainsheet, just let me know.

What to do with the removed seat and bracket? Junked the bracket immediately. Saved the seat hoping an idea would surface....then junked it.

Brian Giersch
[I]Encore[/I], #1245
New Bern, NC

I guess this is one area where the MKI has an advantage. I love my nav seat and use it both underway and at anchor/dock.

Underway you can swing the back around to hold you in place when on a starboard tack. Anytime you are plotting your position (admittedly I don't do this all the time) the Nav station on a MKI is the place to do it. When we do overnight races, I spend quite a bit of time at the nav desk backing up our postion on paper which helps with "big picture" awareness vs the 5" charplotter.

At anchor the nav station is a comfortable place for reading or websurfing if you have wifi.

I have to agree with Bill as far as the MKI goes it is comfortable for reading which I do at that station many evenings on the boat. It also makes an extra seat for when we have a group aboard for dinner.

My recently acquired 2005 Mark II had the seat removed . This boat has a Prosine inverter mounted under the nav table , making sitting there a problem. Is that the usual place to mount that inverter ?

The advantage to locating 'current sucking' accessories under the chart table is that it's close to the batteries and the electrical panel, and thus the wiring hassle is a lot less.

The nav chair in a MK I is definitely the best seat in the house. Sitting there with my feet up on the engine cover is my favorite spot. I do a lot of computer work on the boat and it makes a great desk. I can spend hours typing away with no discomfort. I think the reason people remove the seats from the MK IIs is because they made the nav station so small and useless.

Mike

So does anyone have a drawing of building a cabinet under the chart table for a MKII. I just remove my seat, in the hopes of building such. I'd love to see what other's have done.

Since its just the two of us, we removed the aft and forward cabin doors as soon as we got the boat. As for the chair, we use it about once or twice a season when we have so many for dinner that we run out of seats around both tables, (otherwise, it's in the way).

Interesting that you mention that, Wally. We keep our kitty litter box in the aft cabin and therefore could never close that door when the cat is aboard. That means the door was always obscuring the nav panel and made access to the stuff stowed under the nav table a pain.

I took off the door last year and the Admiral made a nice curtain to close it off. Normally we tie it to the side with a sash, bit even if closed, the cat can get in there. We like it like that.

I should also mention that the aft cabin is only for storage on our boat and that we have not had the nav station seat aboard since purchase in 2004.

We also removed our chair back several years ago, to allow the aft cabin door to open fully. We have seen postings of owners making a cabinet there. I believe there is an aricle on the website, or Mainsheet or Jibsheet, showing how an owner removed the front of the aft cabin hanging locker teak, trimmed it down, and fitted it, including the drawers, into that space. Then we know of someone who put a 12 volt freezer on a rollout shelf in that space.

Thats what is nice about my 1990 ,no door just a curtain across the opening

I know what you mean Bill! We use ours in the same way on starboard tack. Very secure and leaves both hands free.

I drilled two 2mm holes in the top and take a piece of 1.5mm spectra up thru the lid of the chart table near the hinge, across our nav laptop andback down and cleated off under the lid. Holds the laptop in bumpy conditions.

Rob

Bill. Do you have any pictures you could send me off you cooler and wine cabinet. I still use our away a lot as well. Your idea made me think if I could still have the seat and a freezer in the same place but with some mods done.

How do I send a picture my pictures are on jpeg and about 790 but you can only send 390 on this site ?

You resize your picture.

Or you can send it to my email by clicking in ny name

Randy
Did you get my e mail?

Bill, here's how we do it, might work for your here, too.

Posting Photos 101 [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3701.0.html[/url]

I added two drawers under the chart table. Lots of storage. Unfortunately
I could not find a Teak veneer to match. I have had better luck staining
red oak to match the color of the original teak on other projects.

After reading some previous posts here, the door came off to the
aft cabin. We never close it even when my wife and I sleep
back there. Good suggestion.

Bill. I recived your pictures and thank you so much. Great job you did.

I Am glad you got them

I removed the seat and frame from my 2005 mk2 and put the resulting useable
space to good use.
There is now a teak wine and spirit cabinet with a decent tool drawer beneath
it - also in teak. The result looks like it was meant to be there from the start.
The seat was never used, especially with a more comfortable space to sit and work right beside it! Space on a yacht is a too much of a premium to waste
on redundancies.

cheers
Kerry

That's very interesting. I wonder if there is enough room to put one of the slide out drawer freezers there.

[QUOTE=KnotDoneYet;18932]That's very interesting. I wonder if there is enough room to put one of the slide out drawer freezers there.[/QUOTE]

See David Power's post on page 2. The boat he speaks of is the one we purchased, where the owner had a nicely done slide-out under the nav table. The slide held a thermo-electric cooler, but it would likely hold one of the newer freezers just as easily.

For our own reasons, we removed the cooler, which failed, and the slides in order to use the space for other things.

Duane, thanks.

Sometimes I go down and work from the boat when researching or working on documents. That Nav chair is pretty comfortable! :)