recessed footrest

[madman2525]

Hi,

I am looking for a solution with a recessed footrest for the helmsman. I recall that I have seen this somewhere.

More precisley: A plate in the floor (for a twin steering yacht) that you may fold up for your feet when the boat is heeled. (sitting sideways, back to the windward side). And fold down by liftig it a bit or else to fold it flat in the floor again.

This does not need to be a retrofit solution, we are designing the boat so we can still fit it in.

It would be great if you could help me with this?


Regards

Mad

[sailingdog]

I've never seen one for sale...but it wouldn't be all that hard to design. In its simplest form, it would be like a deck inspection hatch, without an opening beneath it... and a strut or two to support it in the up position. It would probably be pretty easy to convert a deck inspection hatch into a recessed footrest, since it has most of the necessary components already.

[T34C]

Sounds basicly like a "runt board" that is positioned on the side instead of behind the helm. Might be better if it was designed to fold UP into the cockpit seat instead of into the floor where the "cavity" will catch and hold water.

[christyleigh]

Since you say you can "still fit it in", although they don't fold flat/flush, a Folding Mast Step or two for each side is a possibility if you can recess them. Of course then you would have 2 or 4 little areas to collect water if you recessed them. Just thinking of small hinged pieces of hardware designed to carry serious weight

[madman2525]

thanks for the help. The plate itself is not realy a problem, I just wondered, if someone sells the mechanics to support and fold it. Otherwise we just have to design something.

Regards

mad

[paulk]

Sounds to me like a solution might be a pair of hinged teak cockpit floor gratings that fit across the whole cockpit sole when they're folded flat, and then can be lifted up in the middle, and moved port or starboard and locked in place for that tack with barrel bolts. With the barrel bolts and a series of holes, the support might be adjustable for different helmspeople or degrees of heel. It's hard to describe w/o a drawing. End view: [__./\.] on starboard, [./\.__] on port; [.__ __.] when flat.

[Giulietta]

What you want is here CLICK you can see it in the Dehler 44.

And if you want my opinion, it is not that a good idea.

The flat surface is not that confortable. (looks better stowed away its true)..I was going to have them built like that, "a La Volvo racer", but after trying it, I foud that after a while you end up sliding one way or the other. The Volvos use flat boards, but due to their size, the boards are actually almost 3 feet long, and raise a lot more than the ones in the Dehler..really not that good.

I opted for rounded foot rests, that are removable with some fastners SD got me.

The advantage of the rounded is that as the boat heels, and you start to "ride up" on the footrests, your foot is allways at the right angle to your leg, which is not the case with the flat ones..believe me after 20 mintes standing it makes a damn differnce. The round are more ergonomic.

mine are very light and easy to remove..let me know if you need more help, ok?

Alex

[madman2525]

thanks for that info, like the dehler is what I am looking for. The rest of the boat seating etc would make that footrest preferable, although I understand your objectons.

mad