About this site

Piers and Lin du Pré bought their new Fleming 55 / 129, Play d'eau, in 2003.

She was berthed in Beaucette Marina, Guernsey in the Channel Islands at N49° 30’.197 W002° 30’.350 until she was sold in October 2021.

This site charts the thrilling adventures they had in her.

You can contact us here.

Where’s Play d’eau?

If the new owners have the AIS on, you can find where Play d'eau is right now.

Click here.

Zoom in and our position will be shown on a map.

Recent Posts

A new helm seat

The new STIDD helm seat
click to enlarge

The original helm seat was fine but had two drawbacks which, over time, had really begun to irritate. First, it creaked at every slight movement of the boat whilst cruising, and second, its ‘real estate’ footprint meant squeezing between it and the table to reach the port side of the Pilot House.

After chatting on the Fleming Owners forum, the answer had to be an Admiral Luxury Low Back Slimline helm seat from STIDD.

Fitting was really easy. The original seat was unscrewed from its stainless steel base plate which was itself bolted through the floor to a large aluminium plate. Since the STIDD had a larger diameter base, a new plate was fabricated to fit the same bolt holes.

Once the new base was installed, the STIDD instructions were easy to follow and in just 30 minutes the new seat ‘was born’. Its engineering is superb. The movement fore/aft, swivel, height and backrest angle, is so smooth. Beautiful.

The result – perfection! What a great seat. Bonus – no creaking and a smaller foot print.

Piers
from the Pilot House of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

4 comments to A new helm seat

  • Patrick J. Colahan

    That is a fine throne for your Man Cave. STIDD is top of the line. I think it goes very well with the wood work as well. Having a seat that is uncomfortable or causes irritating noises on a long voyage can be quite exhausting. This life style is intended to be a desirable one. Enjoy your new throne.

    • Thanks for the comment, Patrick. You are quite right about the irritating noises. I tried many things to stop the old seat from creaking but none really worked. In the end there was only one option – change the seat. The STIDD is not only silent, but it’s beautifully made and looks beautiful as well. Big bonuses!

  • Wendy Wurtele

    Beautiful color! Is it called “Cinnamon”?

  • Hi Wendy,
    The seat’s a STIDD Low Back Luxury Slimline; colour is ‘Curry’ in UltraLeather, with polished Chrome & Stainless, and Powdercoated on Matching Frame Parts.

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