helm seat question

We are out of the water and up on jack stands for the season. I can finally go through the boat and get some things taken care of on our new to us IP27. One of these projects is to clean up the inside of the helm seat. When you remove the teak seat, immediatly under it, on either side are two "things" that must have had a purpose at one time but are peeling and kind of nasty looking. They are approximately 12" long, 3 1/2" wide and about the same tall. They were attached to either side by an adhesive and coated with maybe gelcoat? Starboard side has a cut out which the wheel brake rod goes through, the other is just there. The ends are finished with aluminum which is screwed into place. The plan was to scrape the peeling off, clean the helm station out and repaint it inside. When I started scraping these two things they actually broke loose. They are made of double stacked teak 2x4 lumber, screwed together and covered with gelcoat, glued to the fiberglass inside of the helm seat. The wood was just rotted so I removed them. They don't appear to have a purpose but obviously were put there at the factory. They don't seem to be tall enough to support the teak seat? Anyone have any ideas what these were supposed to do?

Hayden, you are something. Thanks for that information. I was totally baffled by the aluminum plate on the end of these blocks. I couldn't figure out why they would take the time to carefully fit those plates. This makes total sense now. This will get added to the winter to-do list. Wow.......

Craig

Same thing happened to me. I made new wood blocks, using the old ones (or what was left of them) as templates, epoxied them together, then epoxied them into the helm seat. This was my first effort at using West System expoxy, and it's a perfect place to practice: simple job, good access, and no worry if there are drips and it doesn't look perfect. Instead of re-using the aluminum plates, which were pitted with corrosion, I used thickened epoxy at the ends and added some self stick foam (extra weatherstripping from my engine compartment lid) where the quadrant hits the block. Photos attached.

Michael Luskin
"Turtleheart" IP27-146
Scarsdale,NY



Top View


Starboard Block (with groove for wheel brake shaft)


Port Block

Great photos Michael, thank you. I finished my replacements over the weekend, I use the old blocks as templtes as well. I made the new ones out of pressure treated 2x4 scraps that have been in my workshop long enough to be dry. I used Gorilla Glue and SS screws to put them together, then mixed up a batch of fiberglass resin and gave them a coating. My to-do list at lunch is to pick up some 3M 4200 and if the weather cooperates, put everything back together this weekend. I figured this way I could replace them in the future if need be.

Craig