Adjustable front seat in a prospector

[Jason_D]

I am working on a prospector canoe design from bear mountain boats and I wanted to install an adjustable front seat because the weight of the people that will be sitting there range from about 110 lbs to over 250 and I thought it would be a good idea to be able to adjust the position of the seat forward and back. I found a website with a good explination of how to make one, but it also said not to install one in a canoe with a symetrical design, but it didnt give a reason. Can anyone tell me why installing an adjustable front seat would be a good idea?

Thank you for your time,
Jason

[Glen Smith]

Installing an adjustable front seat in a symmetrical canoe is not recommended simply because several people also use their canoe solo sitting in the front seat facing the stern. The support rails would be in the way for such a use.
If you never paddle solo facing backwards then there is no reason for not installing an adjustable front seat.

[BradRob]

I have a similar question. Has anyone ever devised a seat hanging system utilizing the scuppers. Im thinking both the stern and bow seats could be adjustable or removed if they were to be hung from the scuppers. I have often thought about this but never got into designing a hanging system for the scuppers. A system like this would eliminate drilling through the gunnells. You would however have some sort of metal or wooden piece on top of the scuppers to support the hanging brackets.Any thoughts?

[Glen Smith]

The seat would have to be narrow enough to fit in the desired position closest to the bow. This would make the seat too narrow to fit in any other position using a rigid hanging system. Using a non-rigid hanging system would leave you with a seat that would move around as you paddle which wouldn't be effective and maybe unsafe. At least that is my way of seeing it.

[Jason_D]

Thank you for the response. I dont intend to use the canoe solo, so I will go with the sliding seat. this weekend I am fiberglassing the outside.