Is it possible to build your own trapseat/bench. I recently purchased an old H16 for a very low price so I am able to fix a few things without breaking the bank however I plan to sail with my 8 yr old and the trapseat seems like a great way to keep things (people) contained on the boat. The current price for the official trapseat would be twice what I paid for the boat so that is not really an option.

Chris

i too am just intrested in cruising in comfort. i like the idea of the "wings" that hobie makes for the larger boats. ive seen the trapseats and they look good too but these cost money. im currently working on an inexpensive "wing" . it is made of schedule 40 3 inch pvc. it provides a bar to sit on or lean against. im not that flexible and sitting flat on a hobie rail for hours makes my bum raw. this bar is should allow for "hiking" like weight shift. if the thing works, it should cost 30dollars per side. this is for a 16

i cant get my scanned image size under the required 100. private message me your email and ill send my less than spectacular drawing.

I saw a set of home made "wings", actually more like back rest similar to the ones on the hobie wave. They looked like a nice comfort item. They were made for a P16, using 2" aluminum electrical conduit. I plan to make a set for myself soon. The pipe can be purchased from an electrical supply house for about $12.00 a 10 ft stick an d a hydrolic pipe bender can be rented from a commercial rental center near me for about $40.00 a day. The bar was made from two peices per side, coming out of the crossbar end cap (with a hole cut in it), going up slightly less than 90 deg. and then over. The two pieces were joined with an inside sleve and rivets. The horizontal part of the bar was covered with foam pipe insulation and a custom cover.



It looked like it would work well, and a similar design may be possible for the hobie. I thought about PVC myself, but I am afraid that if it breaks due to capsize or whatever, it could be very dangerous.



Just a thought if this helps anyone else thinking about these wings.

Did you see this on a website or in actual use.

I saw it in actual use on a boat in N.C. It looked fairly simple to fabricate and pretty cool. I don't have a picture, but did steal some diminsions if someone needs them.

Trapseats are anything but simple to build, particularly the clamps to clamp to the pillions and side rails. The clamps are what make the Trapseats costly because of the special tooling to get them made. Of course, we build strength into these seats to insure the disAbled sailor is secure. Its a great design a 1000% more comfortable than the standard Hobie wing seats. We just built a new batch of Trapseats, which sell for $750, which is the cheapest they have ever cost, still I realize they are still more expensive then most of us paid for our H16's. Check out the Trapseat at www.sail-s.com go to the bottom of the page and click on the Trapseat class info.

i too have considered the trapseat/backrest options, i came into hobie sailing from a cruising/dinghy racing background and want to explore the cruising altrenatives.i am still considering systems including trapseat, pvc outriggers, TheMightyHobie18 style wings and any other ideas, i am open to suggestion. in the meantime i have been racing and trapping out on the wire, i am starting to feel pretty comfortable out there, lots of mobility, sit-down comfort, it gets me on my feet and i am sailing while standing on occasion. if you havent explored the wire option i suggest you spend some time out there before you put all that effort into re inventing the wheel. and if you find a better way please contact me cause i wanna know!