Seat height and angle

[Morecowbell]

Hi everyone, its been a while but I'm about to hang the seats on my Kipawa and a few questions have arisen in my epoxy addled brain...Ted's book says between 9-1/2 and 10-1/2 inches under the seat, so 10" sounds like a good compromise! Any reason to go higher or lower?

And should the top of the seats (fore and aft) be level with the bottom of the boat or the waterline? I would think waterline but also that it probably doesn't matter much and not sure how I would find the waterline at this point anyway!

Thanks for any thoughts -

Clay

[Jim Dodd]

I always let stability be my guide when setting seat heights.

Too high, the canoe feels tippy.

I start with my seats on the low side. I can always add a pad.
It's also easier to raise a seat, than lower it .
To raise a seat, trim the hanger brackets, and shorten the bolts.
To lower a seat, make new hanger brackets, and buy another set of bolts.( Price Stainless steel seat hardware these days !

My $.02 worth

Good Luck !

Jim

[Cruiser]

There are a few questions you need to consider when setting the seat heights, the first one is "do you like to kneel when you paddle?" , if so, that 9.5-10" is there to allow you to get your feet back under the seat. The down side is that the higher the seat, the higher the center of gravity, the lower the lower the unloaded stability will be. I can't/don't kneel, so I drop my seats 5" from the gunnels to get more stability.

I make my seats so that the forward cross strut is curved and deeper than the back cross strut, effectively creating a bit of a forward cant to the seat, this helps a bit with the front strut cutting into the back of your led as you lean forward. You can replicate this by mounting the seat with a bit of a cant when it's hung, that is just something else for you to consider.


Brian

[Jim Dodd]

I agree with Cruiser.

My Solos, the front edge is 1/2-3/4" lower, in relation to the waterline.

On a Tandem ? I set the stern seat the same as my Solos, and the Bow seat I set level, incase I paddle it solo from the bow seat.

Jim