Dinette Settee Cushion Project

[sail sfbay]

Every time I go onto our new to us 2005 sailboat I find another project. The latest one was the dinette settee cushions, two of which were so compressed they would not stay snug on the settee bench. As a result, they continually slipped out of position. It was obviously time to replace the foam. While others may have their own and a better procedure, I thought I would share how I replaced the foam, in particular steps 4 -7.

1. Measured each cushion and added extra to each dimension per the supplier’s instruction.
2. Ordered cut-to-fit "extra-firm" foam ($200 for a 23” x 58“ x 4.5” right angle and 23” x 53” x 49” x 4.5”right trapezoid sections from www.buyfoam.com).
3. Laid the cut-to-fit foam with zipped fabric cushion cover adjacent to it on a flat surface.
4. Wrapped the foam with cushion wrap silk film from a local cushion shop (also available from www.sailrite.com/Cushion-Wrap-Silk-Film-Center-Fold-54) and applied a film adhesive (you can also use box packing tape) to seal the seams. The film acts as a moisture barrier and made the foam easier to install into the fabric cushion cover.
5. Made a small hole in the film and attached a vacuum cleaner hose then turned the vacuum on to shrink the cushion foam before inserting into the fabric cover. This made foam installation easy and ensured it filled the cushion cover evenly, all the way into the corners.
6. Inserted the shrunken foam with the vacuum hose still on into the fabric cushion cover.
7. Turned the vacuum off and allowed the foam to slowly expand to its original size and fill the cushion.
8. Finally, adjusted the cover to get the seams into their final position, then zipped the cover closed and re-installed them on the settee bench.

They now fit snug on the settee bench without slipping and look nearly new.

 

[dlochner]

Every time I go onto our new to us 2005 sailboat I find another project.

ROFTLMAO!

Thank you for posting your finding. It is appreciated. Life with an older boat, and a 2005 is becoming an older boat, is filled with surprises. Don't ask unless you have a long time to listen to my stories.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

LOVE the vacuum cleaner idea. Fitting foam into tight covers can be a real struggle

 

[sail sfbay]

dlochner,

Thank-you for your humor, i.e., roll of floor till...... . What stories do you have to share? Always interested in member boat projects as they give me inspiration.

 

[dlochner]

dlochner,

Thank-you for your humor, i.e., roll of floor till...... . What stories do you have to share? Always interested in member boat projects as they give me inspiration.

Here's the latest story. The vent line on one of my water tanks was looking kind of funky, it needed replacing. Also noticed a little dampness near the water tank. To access the water tank the top of the Settee had to be removed. All is good so far.

To remove the vent hose, the it was necessary to move the tank a little which required the fill hose to be disconnected. It was uncooperative, so a utility knife was employed. I never used the fill hose anyway. Removed the vent hose. Now, I had an 1 ½ inch hole in the tank where the fill hose used to be. No problem a PVC plug would take care of that.

In the meantime, I saw some moisture by the outlet. It appeared that the hose was not clamped well and water might have seeping out. No problem, I dried the moisture, reset the clamp, and put water in the tank. Went and had a beer. When I came back a little while later, the water was back. It wasn't the clamp. Now it is time to try and wrestle the tank out of the settee. Which meant removing the vent hose that had been installed earlier.

While wrestling with the tank, I caught a glimpse of another outlet at the end of the tank. The end of the tank had been pushed up against a bulkhead so the outlet was not visible. With the vent line removed, the tank could be slide forward a few inches allowing access to the end of the tank. Reaching down in the gap (too narrow to see into it) I found a plug. It was damp. Sliding a wrench down into the gap, I managed to unscrew it.

Upon removing the plug, I was given the opportunity to practice my bad language and malevolent invectives towards the unidentified soul (if he or she had one!) who had installed this plug. It was an interesting combination of a brass reducing bushing and a black iron plug. Now, what could go wrong with this combination of iron, brass and water?

Alright, easy solution, another PVC plug from the hardware store. (This is trip #2, remember all plumbing projects require at least 3 trips.) The next day, with a ½" plug in hand, I attempt to restore water tight into the tank. The plug did not fit, no matter how I tried, it would not fit. Another opportunity to practice bad language. Another trip to the hardware store, some 20 miles distant.

Returning with a ⅜" brass plug, I eagerly dove into the boat, plug in hand and learned that the hole was neither a ½" NPT thread nor a ⅜" NPT thread, but some size in between. You guessed it, more bad language practice.

At home, with the offending plug in one hand and a micrometer in the other, I determined the plug was not a 7/16" plug, besides who ever heard of a 7/16" plumbing fixture? Perhaps it was metric? Diving into the internet world of international pipe thread standards, I found few references to a metric standard. It appears outside of the US and Canada, most of the world uses a British Pipe Standard, either British Standard Tapered (BST) or British Standard Straight (BSS). Sure enough, the measurements I took closely matched the dimensions for a ⅜" BST pipe.

Of course, this is not your common US pipe thread and as such there are no local sources for such a plug. Fortunately, McMaster-Car carries many obscure and hard to find items. For just $3.10 plus shipping McMaster provided a candidate for the repair. It is now sitting on my desk waiting for its trip to the boat this weekend to be happily mated for ever after with my water tank.

If we step back a few days to Monday afternoon, we find another not so amusing event giving yet again another opportunity to practice bad language. Since we have 2 water tanks and one was still serviceable, we had water. As I was cleaning up before heading home, I turned on the faucet. Crickets in a desert. No water, no sound of the water pump. Yes the breaker was on. Yes, it had worked a few hours earlier. Yes, another problem, another project, to be resolved prior to testing the water tank repair.

The saga continues...

For another perspective: http://www.sv-secondstar.net/blog/second-star/16-there-ought-to-be-a-law

 

[ToddS]

I sold my 1964 boat a little over a year ago to buy a 2004... which (relatively speaking) seems like brand new to me. In SOME ways 2005 is becoming an older boat... but relative to most of my years of projects on a boat older than I am (and I have plenty of gray hair), it's just a baby. My project list is still long (endless), but my 2004 boat's projects are on par with your seat cushion problems... fixing nuisances and making improvements... Don't get me wrong, it's still a lot of work, but my OLD boat's project list was a list of things sorted by which things were most likely to sink the boat the soonest, or topple the mast, or prevent the boat from being used at all. I love the vacuum idea by the way... Cushions have never made it onto my project list, so that'd be new territory for me, but I'll keep that technique filed away in the recesses of my mind for when a similar project bubbles up to the top of my own list. Thanks!

 

[sail sfbay]

New projects: Replaced forward head cabinet sliding mirrors and knobs yesterday to mitigate unsightly corrosion and replaced anchor rode with longer length to match the boat size. Then went sailing with wife and friends from Point Richmond through Raccoon Strait, around Angle Island, then back to Point Richmond in 17 - 23 knot wind. Planning the next project(s) and sail this week.