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A comment by Paul Alcock about a sore bum from sitting on the bottom step of the companionway and question if anyone had dealt with the issue of a galley seat for the 250 got the ball rolling for some of us who had thought of the need in the past but not yet applied a solution.

Henk Grasmeyer made the move and came up with a very nice design that hinged to the bottom of the second step and swung up with a hinged leg structure that rested on the first step.

I decided to emulate Henk's design but ran into a snag ascending the steps with my size thirteen feet as they didn't like losing the toe space blocked by the seat while in the stored position.

Before discovering the snag, I'd contemplated improving Henk's design slightly by raising the second step a bit so as to make the seat slightly larger and in the process actually obtaining more uniform distance between the steps.  While thinking that easily done by simply adding shim strips, I realized doing so offered an easy method to fit a seat board addition to the step by using rails attached to the underside of the seat board that slid into the space made by the step shims.

Such a seat board could be larger but on a boat everything must have a storage space and with thought turned to that, a cardboard template was made using the size of a wood TV tray that my wife had bought from an outlet store.  The full rectangular size didn't work for a couple of reasons, it was too large and the head door caught a corner of it at a place that I felt it would stress the door.  A full radius was cut on the front of the cardboard model and a storage place sought.  It only took a minute to realize that the seat board would store directly aft of the steps between the frame and the hose channel for the center board cable.

Construction of the seat is simple, mark a radius or whatever shape desired and cut it.  The rails are a bit trickier.  By carefully sorting out the leg structure from the TV tray (available at Walmart) the rails and legs can be cut and the rivets that hold the tray legs together work well for the hinges for the support legs.  Of course the project can be made from teak with small bolts making the hinges.

Scrap leg materiel was used to elevate the second step 3/4" and the one inch height of the rails now makes a friction fit between the step and the tubular frame, allowing the rails to slide in and hold adequately to keep the seat in place with the legs bearing most of the weight. 

The full 19" of the tray length was used for the seat width, but if the aft berth is used to sleep, the builder may wish to cut the seat width down about 4" so that in the stored position the seat won't limit access to the aft berth.  The  other option that I didn't see until a moment ago would be to use the full 19" of the tray and mount the rails off center so that the seat when mounted shifts starboard two inches (a possible plus for galley use but when stored because of storing bottom forward the shift is to port and thus wouldn't block access to the aft berth).  I'll likely reposition the rails if it seems that a closer to the galley position would be helpful or at least no hindrance.

A benefit of leaving the seat board larger is that the fuel locker cushion works on it quite well.

The seat is stored behind the steps with the underside facing forward for two reasons.

1. The seat board rails lock in place to the step structure
   
2. The second step metal mount won't scratch the top of the seat

I sanded the finish off the seat and added a little teak stain in prep for some polyurathane... doing again, I'd likely leave the finish alone and not worry about the radius as I didn't mess with the legs.  The seat can be upulstered for a softer set.

I agree with Henk... this is a pleaser project for the wife or anyone working at the galley but the advantages can be more.  During foul weather I often helm with the remote from the shelter of the cabin and have done a good bit of that sitting on the small bottom step,  this seat will make an excellent foul weather perch as well as additional cabin seating. 

Walmart or Factory Outlet wood TV tray


This is what is wanted from the tray's legs


Radius the fore section of seat


Seat in place... not offset to starboard in pic


Kind of dark but the rails can be seen sliding between step and frame of stairs
Also noted are the step shims
It can be noted as well that the step screws are missing, longer screws are needed


Leg support on the bottom step


Seat in the stored position - note the advantage that will be gained if the rails are offset so that the seat stores further to port and clears access to the aft berth