They are more than a buffer twixt butt and deck
Issue 102 : May/Jun 2015
Closed-cell-foam seat cushions are available at home centers. I found ours at Menards under their house name Guidesman (SKU 1758538) for $5 or even less online. They’re about 13 x 14 inches and about 1 1⁄2 inches thick and sold as hunting equipment. They have just the right amount of cushioning for sitting on and as backrests. But we’ve discovered that they’re good for much more than that. The surface is just tacky and flexible enough they function as excellent lap tables, providing non-skid support for laptop computers, books, and dinner plates. They float, too, making them an easy first thing to throw in a man-overboard situation since a few are usually in the cockpit at any time in use as seat cushions.
Over time, as we’ve discovered their uses, we’ve purchased several and use them at home as well as on the boat. At home, they’re especially good for use with the laptop computer as they provide a stable platform that insulates the legs from the computer’s heat and all but eliminate the chance of the laptop sliding off onto the floor.
Now, if only they came in gray or blue . . . and somewhere they may.
(So you want color? Different shapes? Google “closed-cell foam kneeling cushions” to discover the world of gardening, school, and other applications for these ubiquitous cushions. But it took Allen and Ruth Penticoff to open our minds to all the things these pads can do on board. –Eds.)
Allen Penticoff, a Good Old Boat contributing editor, is a freelance writer, sailor, and longtime aviator. He has trailer-sailed on every Great Lake and on many inland waters and has had keelboat adventures on fresh and salt water. He presently owns an American 14.5, a MacGregor 26D, and a 1955 Beister 42-foot steel cutter that he’s restoring.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
