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For those of you that have already done it, how did you determine where to place the footrests? right now it's a little hard to lean out off the side to see where my feet end up, without falling! Any suggestions?

Nothing scientific here, just sat in the cockpit and guessed where the best location would be. I believe mine are about 12" out from the sides. I can tell you I'm very happy I put them in.

I'm only 5'8"...I was once 5' 8.75" . At this rate, I'll be 4' 2" by the time the boat splashes. At any rate, I hung my ass way out on the rail and used a car battery to see what felt comfortable as a footrest. I believe I'd rather have the bensons too far out than too close to the centerline. Well, to some extent anyway.

If you'd like, I can measure where the top of the benson is from the boat's centerline.

-- the incredible shrinking man

If your cheeks are hanging more than a couple inches past the rail, your feet are under the straps. But just sitting, or pulling hard on a line, I don't think you'll be further out than the top of the thigh or mid-butt. So I put my foot braces at about the distance from my feet to the crease where my cheeks meet the back of my thigh, with my legs slightly bent. It seemed right to me to place them a parallel distance from the rail, rather than the cockpit sides.

A friend's boat had them way too close, and to drive you had your knees bent way up (those silly stainless hoops that fold up "for your convenience"- meh) . It was really tough, with no leverage or ability to brace, sorta like squatting. Don't do that!

Looks like yours are about 6 - 8 inches inward from mine. But, you're probably 6 inches taller. Plus my daughter is 2 inches shorter. So......

Here's a picture of my bensons (before I put the grip paint on). I basically just sat on the deck and put them where I thought they'd be comfortable. I've only sailed the boat a few times, but I think that I got them right.



Phil

My bensons are placed 16" from centerline, for a reason: there's nothing underneath therefore the bensons must serve as cockpit floor stiffeners too.
The bensons are split fore-aft at frame 169, because the traveller track is going across there.

I used my bensons as on-top stringers also, so aft of f169 the only structure underneath is a centerline girder.

Mine are about 20" from top to top, for what that's worth.