HELMSMAN COOLER SEAT REBUILD - 17' 1988 AQUASPORT

[Coverhill]

After making do with the Igloo cooler seat that originally came with my 17' Aquasport, when I went to replace the original Igloo cooler that fit within the stainless steel frame designed by Aquasport, I found that Igloo had over time modified their cooler molds so that the same capacity size Igloo cooler would no longer fit within the frame designed to hold the seat.

Thus I continued to put up with the old Igloo cooler, repairing it as best possible so that it would last a little longer (see photo below of that sad old original cooler seat).

Finally, in April 2012 I decided to bite the bullet and do whatever necessary to get a brand new cooler
that would also act as a seat at the helm of my Aquasport.  
I looked at as many currently marketed coolers as possible, after having made note of the exact interior dimensions of my stainless steel seat base. I eliminated many coolers and finally settled on two finalists. The ultimate winner of this "cooler contest" was the "Yeti 65 Quart" cooler, which is pricey but built to last longer than I will remain on this earth. Yeti's 65 Quart size was the largest Yeti that would fit inside my Aquasport stainless seat frame with only minor modification to the frame; the next size larger would have
required me to essentially build an expensive new seat frame and would have restricted my ability to walk around each end of the cooler once installed in the boat. Having used the 65 Quart now for some months I'm completely happy with my selection of it.

I took Aquasport's stainless seat frame and this Yeti cooler to a Riviera Beach, Florida metal working shop that works in stainless steel, "Canvas Designers", who did a wonderful job of modifying the steel base sufficiently to hold the new Yeti 65 quart cooler seat.

The only change made to the metal base was to move the rear of the frame outward about an inch and a half and to add two new attachment tabs so the seat frame will continue to screw into the exact same attachment holes in the deck of the Aquasport.

In the attached photos you can see the vertical seam where they welded on a new sheet metal piece at the rear of each side of the seat base, along with the two "tabs" they added to maintain the same seat frame to deck attachment points.

Coverhill

[RickK]

Nice - thanks for sharing the pics  

[Capt Matt]

Love my Yeti
you will find it will last longer than 10 igloo's when used as a seat
Capt Matt

[gran398]

Excellent job.

Like your style as well

Keep up the good work, and keep us apprised of your ride.

[Mikerodrig27]

I'm looking into getting either a Yeti 65 or 75 for my 175. Do you have any pictures of this installed in your boat?

[Coverhill]

April 11, 2013

It's a bit late, as I just found "Mikes" inquiry of a year ago where he asks for more pictures, but I'm posting here more photos of where I selected a 65qt size YETI cooler as a replacement helmsman seat for my 1988 17ft Aquasport center console.

I too looked at the 75qt size but concluded it was not the right choice as it would (1) take up too much room in my boat, and restrict my being able to walk around the ends of the cooler when I wanted to get to the outboard motor, and (2) it would require me to build a new stainless steel seat frame because of its size, whereas with the 65qt YETI I could slightly modify the original Aquasport stainless steel frame and complete the project.

Now that I've used the new YETI seat and modified seat frame for a number of boat trips I can say that I'm 100% satisfied with what I now have and the choices I made. The 65qt size DOES allow two "normal sized" persons to sit side by side on this seat. I use the Yeti as dry storage and then put an Igloo cooler back against the transom for holding any fish; this allows me to easily remove and clean a lightweight cooler rather than the much heavier Yeti. If I'm not fishing that day, the Igloo stays at home. This works for me but might not be what others would choose.

As you can see by my one "before" photo, I made my original Igloo cooler last as long as possible, putting a plywood top on it when its top began to crack due to sun and age, but finally when it began to crack in other places as well I knew that it had reached the end of its life. The YETI, although quite expensive ($390.+tax) will last longer than I'm going to last which is a comforting thought.

Here are the pix :









I've added this postscript for my future reference, as well as an aid to others: when in your own Photo Gallery on this Forum, after you click on an image to select that image and have then gone to its right side and designated your choice of either a (1) thumbnail image or a (2) full size image, THEN hit "Control C" to copy that image. THEN go to your post and put your cursor exactly where you want that image to appear and THEN hit "Control V" to paste the image at that location. IMPORTANT NOTE: "Georgie" in Ft Lauderdale deserves all the credit for this tip. He gave it to me.

Coverhill
in North Palm Beach, FL

[wingtime]

This is an interesting post.  My 170 has a slightly different mount and seat back for the cooler.  I just put on a set of new handles on my 84 quart Igloo cooler and repaired the seat cushion so I'm good for the near future.  I'll have to measure up the new Igloo coolers to see if they will fit inside my mount.

[RickK]

There is a link in the upper portion of most forums that show how to post pics in your topics.  Once into the explanation scroll down to just past the part where you upload the pics to the gallery and it'll walk you through posting into your topic - very easy to do. You can do it.

[Coverhill]

I think I'm beginning to understand why so few people add helpful photos to their posts in this forum.

I've been doing the computer bit for over a dozen years and believe I'm reasonably proficient but this "add photo" thing has got me stumped and about ready to throw in the towel and I don't really want to do that.

I do appreciate both Rick and Capt Bob trying to help but after spending quite some time working with their recent advice I'm as perplexed as before. Rick says "there is a link in the upper portion" but does not give me the exact name of the "link" and I've found nothing that walks me through each step needed to add photos to a post. Bob has been more specific and has gotten me to the "Gallery" where I have opened one of my photos and do see to the right of it the two choices he specifies. I have chosen "img" and highlighted that. But I'll be darned if I understand to at that point MOVE THAT PICTURE TO THE SPECIFIC POSTING THAT I WANT THE PICTURE IN. Bob's Ctrl + C does not stimulate my computer to do anything that I can detect.

Soooo - here is where I'm at.  DEAD IN THE WATER !

Coverhill
North Palm Beach

[wingtime]

At or near the top of each main forum section there is a topic that is stuck there titled "posting pictures in your topic"  for instance this topic is under the "Aquasport Rebuilds" forum or section.  If you click on "forums" in the blue bar at the top to the right of home you will get the list of all the main forum sections.  Click on "Aquasport rebuilds" and you will see the "posting pictures in your topic" is the second topic down from the top.

[Georgie]

Coverhill,

Don't know if this helps clarify the steps you're taking, but "ctrl + C" is the "COPY" command and "ctrl + V" is the "PASTE" command, so basically, once you have the Image link highlighted on the right side of your photo, you're going to tell the computer to "copy" the link, which the computer does temporarily saving it for you, and then when you get back to your forum post you tell it to "paste" the same link wherever the cursor is in your post.

[Coverhill]

April 16, 2013

I WANT TO THANK EACH OF YOU FOR HELPING ME GET PHOTOS FROM MY "PHOTO GALLERY" INTO MY ABOVE POST. "THANK YOU"
RickK
CaptBob
wingtime
Georgie

Coverhill
North Palm Beach

P.S. - have spent the past couple of days panel mounting a Garmin 740S into a 47' Viking. It's now up and running and looks purty, waiting for a trip to the Bahamas. A comment which may be of interest about the 740S - it contains processors that are so fast that there is NO DELAY in refreshing its screen when you scroll across it in "navigation" mode, where it's showing a chart. Scrolling is done by swiping your finger across the screen since it's "touch screen". All the current larger Garmin Chartplotters that I've tested as recently as this past week do not scroll as fast as the 740S. In time I suspect Garmin will speed up those models as well but they haven't yet, which makes the 740S a real pleasure to use. It also has its GPS antenna internal to the unit so there is no separate antenna to mount, and it's so sensitive you can mount it anywhere and it will still quickly pick up the needed GPS satellite signals. For using this unit as an electronic chart you need only to connect two wires: 12v+ and 12v-  and you're up and running.