Removing seats

[mako2000]

I know this is a bit of a general question and noone can give an exact answer, but is it safe to remove a centre bench seat out of a 12-13ft tinnie that comes with 3 seats. Ive been looking to buy one and can never find exactly what I want for the right price so have been toying with the idea of the seat removal. Thanks in Advance guys.

[BFB]

I think you would need to look at the structure of the boat. Most small aluminium boats would be using the seat to help strengthen the sides and removing a seat wouls cause to sides to flex. It is not something I would do without adding new support.

[dunc333]

+ 1 FROM ME There to i dont know how you could stegthen it back to origanal strengh ,someone on here mite though so will be looking what some one suggests.

[fryboy]

I think the seats also contain floatation (foam etc), so you will drastically alter the floatation of the boat..

[mako2000]

Thanks guys, along the lines of what I was thinking, If I do go down that road i will look at installing extra full length ribs before I start chopping!

[tuffy]

Mako2000, there are plenty of tinnies that only have 2 seats in them and they are usually quite strong enough. Your is only 12 or 13 ft long so I would imagine that the distance between the front and back seats is probably only about 2 meters at the most.I don't think you will have a problem removing the middle seat. A boat of that size wouldn't have enough stresses put on it to warrant any problems, not unlesss you're fitting a 100hp motor !!

Tuffy