170 Montauk Fighting Chair Mounting

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
bikerGus
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:28 pm

170 Montauk Fighting Chair Mounting

Postby bikerGus » Mon Nov 06, 2017 1:22 pm

What is the to best way to install a Todd Supreme fighting chair in a 2016 Montauk 170 in front of the console?

With the igloo cooler removed, there's a lot of room to rotate sitting in the seat, and the top of the anchor locker provides a nice flat surface to layout the tackle boxes.

Because the deck has no reinforcement, I mounted the pedestal to a teak plank for stability with DriDeck between the planks and the deck. It works, but will bounce about in a chop.

Is there a better way?

chair1.jpg
Rotated original image so the image orientation matched the actual orientation.
The image was taken with camera held sideways--jimh
chair1.jpg (15.23 KiB) Viewed 3918 times

Jefecinco
Posts: 1592
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 6:35 pm
Location: Gulf Shores, AL

Re: Species that can be angled for from a 170 MONTAUK

Postby Jefecinco » Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:07 am

What species are you going to be fighting from that chair? Marlin, shark or Halibut will probably tip the chair, Bass probably not. To find species that are large and fierce enough to require a fighting chair to bring the fish to the boat will probably entail offshore fishing. Very heavy duty tackle will be needed to bring the fish close enough to the boat to gaff and then where do you put it? Where will you store the bait, large landing net, gaff and all the additional tackle and equipment required?

The Montauk 170 is not built for big game fishing. A big game fighting chair is a bit large for mounting in a 17 foot center console boat. It would look out of place like a steadying sail as used on trawlers. The forward cooler seat is a good seat for fishing for inshore fish though I prefer the reversible pilot seat. If a disability requires you or a guest to land a fish while seated a folding deck chair could be placed forward of the cooler close enough to the gunwales to get the job done.
Butch

bikerGus
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: Species that can be caught in Texas

Postby bikerGus » Mon Jan 15, 2018 3:53 pm

I hope to catch and release a big shark.

In my part of Texas big sharks and big tarpon can be caught surf casting from the beach or fishing off a jetty with heavy rods and reels if you know how. It's not necessary to go offshore.

jimh
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Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: 170 Montauk Fighting Chair Mounting

Postby jimh » Mon Jan 15, 2018 6:49 pm

Because of the double bottom hull construction of Boston Whaler boats used for the last 60-years, it is generally not possible to create strong attachment points at random locations in the hull or cockpit deck. Usually an strong attachment point must be pre-designed and prefabricated during the original hull layup by providing appropriate embedded reinforcement material in in the hull below the deck surface.

If no such backing material exists in the location where you want to mount a fighting chair, I don't see any particularly better option than the one you used: mount the chair to some plywood or other reasonably strong material, and spread the load of the chair over a wide area.

It is possible to create small, isolated, strong attachment points for screw fasteners by making your own embedded backing material. The usual process is to drill a small hole, say 0.25-inch, into the deck. Into the hole an L-shaped auger bit is inserted and carefully rotated in order to remove the foam below the deck. The debris is removed from the hole with suction. Then a mixture of epoxy resin and high-density filler is poured into the hole, filling the void created. The resin is allowed to cure. A new pilot hole is drilled. The resin can then be tapped for a machine screw or a self-tapping screw can be threaded into the hole. Use care not to crack the resin or the deck laminate.

In this instance, with the load of the chair spread over a wide area with wooden or other decking above the original deck, the new deck could be fastened in place with a number of screw fasteners into the original deck, located at the periphery of the new deck, and the screws fastened into newly created reinforced fastening points.

I don't do any sort of angling for fish from my boat, so I cannot join the sidebar discussion regarding what species could be caught from the chair.

bikerGus
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: 170 Montauk Fighting Chair Mounting

Postby bikerGus » Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:39 pm

I think [the mounting of the fighting chair] maybe okay for now (as it is] without all the labor [jimh] described to screw down.

I sandwiched Dri-Dek between the plywood and deck to cushion any bounce running in a chop. A big guy sitting in this heavy chair with leg leverage against the boat sides feels fairly solid--over 350-lbs of man, plywood, and chair.

Because the Montauk is so light, hooking a big fish might be a fun sleigh ride. And everything is easily removable for cleanup and chair theft avoidance.

Thanks for rotating the pic.