March 21, 2022 - New Pompanette Helm Chair - DISAPPOINTMENT

March 21, 2022 - New Pompanette Helm Chair - DISAPPOINTMENT

It was interesting as we did not receive any written instructions about the new chair or how to install it.  Although, it DID SEEM fairly straight forward.  While I had been told the bolt pattern was identical to our current chairs - it's a good thing I had checked.  While the bolt pattern to the deck plate was the same (slotted hole in photo below) the holes for the pedestal to the deck plate were different requiring us to move the the old chair and its deck plate.  

So - the new Deck Plate is now installed where the old one was.  Okay - not a big deal to swap out the deck plate, just had to pull a ceiling liner to get to it .........

Does FRONT mean FRONT???

Next we installed the pedestal onto the deck plate.  Well now we discover two NEW issues.

1. The height adjustment handle is at an odd angle.  On the other two chairs it would be at a 90 degree angle to a fore-aft line, this one is at an off angle of 120 degrees.
2. The rotation locking feature (slots at top of pedestal) are also at an odd angle of about 15 degrees.

Pedestal mounted to base plate - adjustment handle at odd angle

Off angle of handle and rotation locking slots can be clearly seen

When we got the boat back to her home slip, I contacted Ponpanette about these alignment issues.  Surely there is some sort of explanation or an error that can be corrected.

When I inquired with Pompanette about these alignment issues the response was:

"The clamp plane faces a bolt in the pedestal flange pattern on our platinum peds. That means if someone mounts the deck plate with the "forward" going forward, you're always going to have the clamp handle face off at a 30-degree angle because of the deck plate pattern. We've run into this problem before where the "forward" mark really doesn't make sense if you want the clamp face side to side. I think maybe many years ago, the pedestal flange was clocked to have the clamp plane face the space between screws in the bolt pattern. Then it would all work with no issue. As a solution, if the customer wants the clamp facing side to side, he can clock the deck plate 30 degrees and remount it (he can easily line his drilled holes up with the taps in the deck plate and re-drill for the mounting slots). This isn't ideal and he might not like having the extra holes, but they'll be concealed and it will solve his issue."

Older P/H chair located to starboard side of the flybridge
Note how the locking handles align athwartship

I have decided NOT to drill a new set of holes into the flooring to re-clock the P/H deck plate and to live with the disappointing results of the adjustment handle and locking features.  

VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH POMPANETTE!