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Someone came up with the bright idea of putting seats in the stern rail of larger boats since these rails already had double horizontal bar construction. We thought that pretty creative. And so did most of the other builders. And soon most big boats had these guest seats. (You can't steer from them but they are nice for sight seeing.) Then, even a few of the smaller size boats began squeezing in this stern seating idea. And Rhodes admirers began asking, "Where are yours?"
Our prospects and buyers once more drove us off our lazy butts. But once standing, we went into our standard frenzied analytical mode – our stern seating had to be the cleverest and the very best. It was soon obvious. Attempting to get three adults in the rear end of a 22' sailboat, one with tiller in motion in hand, was pushing the envelope a bit far – even in the Rhodes' giant cockpit. Beside, if you are going to provide super luxurious seating in the back of the bus, the driver should be the one to get the seat – not the non-paying guests. These notions were enough to start the creative juices flowing. Once we were designing with the Skipper in mind, it was obvious that it would be the port and starboard sides of the stern rail to be curved and not the aft run.
With that simple mindlessness out of the way, we began looking around for the best and most attractive seating unit we could find because, with a single horizontal-bar stern rail, we could not build in our seat. Adversities, as is often the case, can turn into assets. At that very moment of birth, our favorite supplier was reading our minds and comes out with a complete matching set consisting of a stainless steel deck socket, matching pivoting bracket to slip into and out of the permanent deck socket and an absolutely gorgeous seat with a wonderfully supportive back for the weakest of backboned captains.
We sat in it. Ah! If only there was an arm rest built into the rail top. And guess what. Another supplier read our mind and there it was, in matching color. The freedom to swivel, the comfort, the visibility and the great support to all body parts and then the ease of folding down the back and lifting the seat off for lazaret storage, all gave such a rush of intense satisfaction – it had to be the overflow of the pride of authorship. So we dared test it at the St. Petersburg Show. We are pleased to announce that the paying jury proclaimed the Skipper's Swivel Seating the best thing since the slicing of bread, and 10 out of 9 sailing chiropractors gave it their blessing on the spot - one two times because there are two such seats for every Rhodes 22, for double your pleasure or, sharing this pleasure.
