Seat downsizing

François · Post by **François** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:06 pm

I just received my Greenval seat plan. It is a very good plan but I find the dimentions a bit large and bulky. I think this style of seat would fit well in a Freedom 17. I intend to install a slider in th front and I will probably do the same is the back. This is to allow the best possible ballance of the canoe even when we do not carry camping gear. (Some Wenonah have sliders in the front and in the back).
I intend to reduce the size of the seat by at least 10%. What do you think of the idea? Has anyone done this? If so does it make caning much more difficult?

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:20 pm

Salut François,

If you think the seat will look too bulky in your streamlined Freedom, then by all means reduce it. Keep the seat area large enough for your comfort, make the frame members large enough to support the weight and stress, and the caning can be done using a finer cane and smaller, more closely spaced holes if you are hand-caning. If you will use pressed-in cane, I think there are different styles available with smaller, more closely spaced cane.

Keep us up-to-date on your project.

AlanWS · Post by **AlanWS** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 5:56 pm

Maybe it's just an indication of my age and physical condition, but the people I know are much more likely to wish they had made the canoe seats larger, rather than smaller. You save very little weight with smaller seats, so make sure they will be comfortable for you. As far as strength and caning goes, the several year old caned seats a friend took out of his canoe this year to replace with bigger ones were, in contrast to him, in good shape.

I hope he doesn't read this.

Erik, Belgium · Post by **Erik, Belgium** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:21 am

I use relative small seats as well. Also a slider in the last canoe without the use of mounting hardware (no bolts, no nuts).
Seats and Thwarts are of cherry.
More info on http://users.pandora.be/kano-kayak/Winisk-1.htm.
Please post pictures of the result.

Erik, Belgium.

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:54 am

Frank,

Depends on whether you paddle kneeling Canadian style, in that case the seats can be minimal and used only occasionally to sit down and stretch out. Paddlers that prefer sitting sometimes use tractor seats (eg. Wenonah canoes) and the dimensions in those can provide some indication of the size needed to accomodate the average rear end.

The width can be estimated by measuring the butt on a bench - the sides of the hip joints should give some indication of the size needed, so can be scaled down if smaller is possible. The typical seat should be large enough to take a variety of bums, OTOH ( turning the cheek as it were), smaller is possible for individualized tailoring while still keeping things comfortable.

:smile

François · Post by **François** » Sat May 14, 2005 3:38 pm

I have downsized the Greenval seat plan by 10 %. It will fit much better for a Freedom 17. This is a quite challenging job. I took 22 different measurements from the plan. These measurements were made in millimiters in order to facilitate the conversion. I then transferred these measurements inmy computer on an Excel spreadsheet, put in the conversion formula and played with it until I was satisfied with the end results. Finally I transferred the plan on a sheet of paper based on the reduced measurements. Basically the width of the seat is reduced by a two inches and it is still a fairly large seat. According to the original plan the seat was designed for a Winisk. Here is a picture of the frame. I now need to do the caning. I will also make sliding seat in the front and in the back.

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Sat May 14, 2005 4:07 pm

François, the seat frame looks great! You seem to be having a bit of trouble with your website however. Would it be possible for you to also resize the photo to a maximum of 600 pixels wide as it is forcing us to scroll off-screen to read the messages in this thread? Thank you.