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My uncles 23' Wellcraft CC has 3 loose bolts in the base of the Captains Chair. We thought we could get at the nuts thru an access plate but find there is a divider that prevents getting to tho loose bolts. Are there any tricks to tighten up these bolts? We have temporairly wedged some wood under the base to prevent the chair from rocking but it needs a permanent fix.
Hmmmm, Someone must have gotten their hand in there to install the nuts. Why would they block later access with a divider? Some are installed with lagbolts. I've torn up both chair bases on mine. I made aluminum mounting plates for underneath. The wood may be soft and dryrotted. The toggles will work if you get big enough ones, bring a tool along to keep tightening.
Jack B,
Another option, try these. I have used them. They fixed a loose chair before for me. The one disadvantage is the hole has to be slightly enlarged to force this through but it works well. Good Luck
I finally got down and dirty to see how Wellcraft got to the bolts on the other side of a fiberglass divider. Guess what, they didn't. There a 6 hold downs. The three with access use bolts. The three we could not get at are screws which seemed loose since they were stripped. We can put in larger screws or remove the pedastal completely and use togglers. Still thinking that one over.
For me, toggle bolts are a "temporary" fix and a backing plate or plates is a permanent fix. The backing plate distributes the "stress" over a larger area than toggles or washers. Wood , like Teak, will work, but Starboard or Aluminum is better. 1/4" Aluminum would probably be the easiest to install.
Try... Using a pry bar under the seat mount to put tension on the retainers. You may be able to tighten it some or remove the bolts/screws and start over with a larger screw or bolt/toggle set-up.
If they're frozen, this may wedge the base enough to drill out the offending fasteners but I'm making no promise on that.
I must not have explained the setup too well. There is an access port right in the middle of floor,between both captains chairs, mainly to reach fittings on top of the fuel tank. Thru that port you can reach three nuts on each pedastal. There is no way to reach the other fasteners [3 on each pedastal] due to a fiberglass divider, foam for the tank and the fact that the space between the tank and sole is only about 4 inches. Just enough tho get ones arm in. The 3 screws on the loose seat have heads that look just like the bolts. Because they were stripped and turned we assumed they were bolts. They lift right out by the way which is why we have an option of putting larger ones in. We have wedges under the pedastal to temporarily prevent the seat from rocking. I suspect when the wedges are removed we will be able to tighten up the accessible three nuts more than they are now. This should stop the wobble. There is no way anyone is getting behind the other three to put in any kind of backing plate. It is either remove the pedastal and use toggles or try larger screws.
save yourself a lot of grief and bite the bullet. Take the seat out and over size the holes but try not to drill thru the deck completely. Fill the holes with an epoxy and chopped fiber glass or stainless or aluminum wool. Allow to set up, redill the correct size hole and reinstall the screws. If you use the taggles the holes necessary are huge and may not even be covered by the seat. A good west system plug may out last the boat.
You could always cut in another access hatch so you can get to all of the bolts. Adding larger lag bolts might help for a while, but they too might become loose. You need to find out why you can pull out the other lag bolts. it sounds like the holes have gotten weaker either with moisture or stress or both. How often are you going to keep adding larger bolts?
Here's what I did on my prior boat. The entire base was lag bolted and they gave out, no access. I cut a hole dead center of the base, big enough to get my hand in. The rest is rather obvious but I did make two arcs of alum. backing and slid them under rather than fender washers. If your base plate is of a large diameter should be no problem. If it's not, maybe that's part of the weakness, mabye get a wider one and do as above.
I honestly have to recommend filling the holes w/ epoxy and using the original hardware first. I have done this before w/ a great deal of success. If it doesn't work you can always move on to more aggressive repairs such enlarging the holes for toggle bolt
s or cutting additional access ports).
It's much easier to enlarge a hole than it is to make it smaller.
OK let's say we will fill the holes with epoxy and redrill. Without access to the bottom of the panel how does one prevent the epoxy from falling thru the hole?
I tried the epoxy in the hole method. As I recall the epoxy "patch" spun in place. You can epoxy a wood plug in place and drill it but I fear this problem will re-appear until you get nuts, bolts and backing on all the screws.
Repairing loose Captains Chair 
