Double Helm Seat Install

[James K]

Hi All, I'm looking at mid 2000's 260 Sundancers for buying and am curious if anyone has ever swapped single helm chair for double. For all the boats that are out there I've only seen one 260 Sundancer (2008) with a double helm chair. Should I assume they did that as an option at original purchase? Is anyone aware of simplicity/difficulty to replace single chair with a double? Thank you for any input.

Jamie

 

[Lazy Daze]

In the years you are referencing ('99-'04 were the same and then '05-'09 were the same), a double helm was never an option. I suspect you are getting confused with model years. When the boat was redesigned in 2010 (became a noticeably smaller boat, too) the cockpit layout was changed to a port-side cabin entry. That allowed for the double helm seat because the port-side lounder didn't run to the bulkhead. You can double check me on this by looking at the archives on SR's website, though.

As far as installing a double helm on a mid-'00's 260DA... it would make cabin entry awful tight, along with bow access.

 

[James K]

In the years you are referencing ('99-'04 were the same and then '05-'09 were the same), a double helm was never an option. I suspect you are getting confused with model years. When the boat was redesigned in 2010 (became a noticeably smaller boat, too) the cockpit layout was changed to a port-side cabin entry. That allowed for the double helm seat because the port-side lounder didn't run to the bulkhead. You can double check me on this by looking at the archives on SR's website, though.

As far as installing a double helm on a mid-'00's 260DA... it would make cabin entry awful tight, along with bow access.

Thx for reply, very helpful as it confirms it wasn't an option to have double helm for those years. The boat I saw was definitely an '08 260DA (I even went back to the broker to confirm as they pulled up their records). As we look at boats a double helm makes a big difference for me and my wife. I guess my question now is how simple it was to switch. Is the mounting/brackets the same or was there a decent amount of fabrication/modification done to make it work? I get the minimal space you referenced regarding bow steps and cabin entry. Thank you again for reply.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Oh, if memory serves, depending on when the boat was ordered in 2009, it could have came as the older model 260DA (28' long) or there were early 2010 models labelled as 2009 and they were first named 250DA and 270DA (28')... which the following year became the 260DA (24') and 280DA (28').

However, in 2008, the '05-'09 260DA model was NEVER available with a helm seat in the US. And once the redesign happened, the boat was NEVER available with a bucket seat. I'm not sure about the foreign market.

Either way, switching a bucket seat to a helm seat is major surgery, most likely to include major fiberglass work to the deck - again, it was never an option to have it one way or the other.

 

[James K]

Oh, if memory serves, depending on when the boat was ordered in 2009, it could have came as the older model 260DA (28' long) or there were early 2010 models labelled as 2009 and they were first named 250DA and 270DA (28')... which the following year became the 260DA (24') and 280DA (28').

However, in 2008, the '05-'09 260DA model was NEVER available with a helm seat in the US. And once the redesign happened, the boat was NEVER available with a bucket seat. I'm not sure about the foreign market.

Either way, switching a bucket seat to a helm seat is major surgery, most likely to include major fiberglass work to the deck - again, it was never an option to have it one way or the other.

thx again for quick and DIRECT replies. The few boats I've gone to see the brokers casually hemmed and hawed when asking same question. Still like the boats though so may have to give up on double helm idea

 

[Lazy Daze]

You're welcome. I wouldn't hold it against them - not always, but often, brokers are simply showing a boat. They don't necessarily know much about the boat - or sometimes not much about boating, in general. They're just doing their job of advertising and showing the boat. Some brokers do, though, know quite a lot about boating.