Turn a Fishing Barge into a Party Barge?

[puddingtime]

I came across a good deal on a 2011 Sun Tracker Fishin Barge 22 DLX. I would rather have a front layout like a party barge with more couch like seats instead of the fishing seats in the front. How hard would it be to replace/retrofit the fishing seats with some different furniture? Also, is it possible get new furniture with the same design and colors as what's original on the Sun Tracker. Any advice or web pages/suppliers you could forward me to would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HotTommy]

When I renovated my old pontoon boat several years ago the only thing I kept on the deck was the fence. I bought all new furniture and arranged as I wanted. The big items are smply wedged in the spaces made by the fence. If I had a piece out in the middle I'd want it secured to the deck. .... I had no problem buying furniture then, but I've read of suppliers being back ordered by months over the past few years. Hopefully someone with more recent experience will chime in. ... As for matching your existing color scheme, back then the suppliers had stock colors and that was what you could choose from. Of course a local upholstery shop can recover with any fabric currently available.

 

[puddingtime]

Thanks!

 

[legalfee]

I had mine done by a canvas company. They said the furniture was in too bad shape to recover so they put in all new. They also put in a vinyl floor.

 

[Scott Danforth]

pull out the seats, install what you want. iboats sells seats.

 

[ahicks]

A note of caution regarding companies that say they have or can get the seats you need quickly, charge you for them, then take 4+ months to deliver.....

That was me last spring/summer, ordering an entire new interior, captain's chair and console, from a company that SAID they had them in stock. 4 weeks later I called regarding the status of my order. They're reply? What order! Start over again with barely an apology. Then when it hadn't shown a month after that, I called Wise direct (Wise sell the majority of the replacement seats). After getting to the bottom of it at the warehouse, I find my large order kept getting pieces stolen from it to satisfy smaller orders, forcing my order in forever land waiting to ship. I FINALLY got them to agree to ship what they had - and pieces trickled in for the next 10 weeks.....

Sound familiar IBoats?

 

[jetboater]

As others have said, it’s not hard to replace the seats on a pontoon—-you just unscrew (or occasionally unbolt) the old ones and screw or bolt the new ones in.

However, it can be a bit pricy depending on the quality and number of replacement seats you buy.

I’d pick out and price out what you think you may want and figure that in to the total cost of the boat——it might be cheaper to keep looking for a boat with the seating configuration you want.

and then all the seats would match....

 

[ahicks]

The issue is, the seats look great, and then they don't! Unless they receive unusually good care, my experience has been they have a life of 10 to 15 years, assuming just "good" care - as in covered when not in use. Seats left uncovered outdoors may not make it much past 5 years.

So the issue is when you are looking at that 10 year old boat with upholstery that's still lookin good. That boat sells for top dollar because of that, and 2 years later you see the seat backs starting to get brittle or change colors.

My point here is this. Pay attention when buying a boat over 7-8 years old as there is a good chance the upholstery is going to turn on you soon. Price the boat accordingly.

 

[Groo]

How about sticking helm chairs where the casting chairs are? Or just have whatever furniture that doesn't match reapolosted to match.