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Happy Halloween! 🎃🎂
Solo seat
- Thread starter S.Shepherd
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It looks great! I get nervous with the cutting and drilling part too. I hope you like it. If you decide you'd like it lower then you could easily add some homemade spacers or the spacer kit from Ed's for another $20.
https://www.edscanoe.com/sespwisthaki.html
https://www.edscanoe.com/sespwisthaki.html
I have them but I figured I'd try this first. I'm a bit worried if I lower it I won't be able to tuck my feet under the seat to kneel.
I used the rear hole from the yoke for the front hole of the seat, it's the extra huge/heavy duty seat from eds.
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I always wear some sort of slip off shoes when paddling and paddle in my socks to get extra clearance kneeling but I guess it depends where you paddle and how often you like to get out. I see that Ed also offers 2 inch drops and hopefully would sell them pretty cheap without the expensive fasteners. In any case I think a higher seat is better unless it makes you feel unstable and I imagine the Spirit 2 would be a stable solo. It's a nice looking boat.
Location of the seat, is a little to far forward for my solo's. Mine are set at about 5 1/2" towards the rear to give the hull a slightly Bow light waterline. This will also improve handling.
Also lower the front edge of the seat ! About 3/4" lower then the rear edge. This will improve comfort a lot !
If you try and sit in a seat that is level with the underside of you gunnel, you will likely be unstable ! Kneeling only will be OK.
Good Luck !
Jim
Also lower the front edge of the seat ! About 3/4" lower then the rear edge. This will improve comfort a lot !
If you try and sit in a seat that is level with the underside of you gunnel, you will likely be unstable ! Kneeling only will be OK.
Good Luck !
Jim
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I’m with Jim on all counts; further back, canted forward a little and hung at least a bit below the inwales. You’ll know for certain the first time you try it out as is, especially if you find yourself rocking broadside waves or running downwind bow heavy.
Some aspects of seat placement are a matter of personal paddling preference. I paddled tandems bow backwards for decades and further back feels natural. In solo boats I prefer the center of my seats 10 -11 inches back of center hull, depending on the canoe.
The Spirit II is decently deep at center (14”), but has 5” of sheerline rise at the stern (19” stern). Moving the seat back further will also provide more depth to work with. Maybe lay a board across the gunwale and check the depth difference at center and at 10” back. You could probably move back a seat width, and reuse the rear seat holes in the gunwales for the front holes, reusing the same seat cut narrower.
I sit 90% of the time, so all of my seats are on drops, and stern or center seats are canted slightly, in part for occasional kneeling comfort and also to help keep me from sliding backwards while seated (especially when using a foot brace).
Clearance for kneeling is of course shoe size and footwear dependant. With size 12 EEE’s I’m kinda screwed if wearing boots. Something with a more flexible sole helps, especially with the more difficult foot extraction process; I can angle and slide my feet under quickly and easily enough, getting them back out is a lengthier process, trickier and wobbli. . . . . .glubglubglub.
Too late now, but a contour seat will put your butt an inch lower while preserving foot room along the sides.
https://www.edscanoe.com/40cecacose.html
getting my feet caught under a low seat, upside down in the water doesn't sound like a good time. I'll try this out tomorrow and if it feels tippy I'll drop it 2"
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I find when wearing foot ware that is flexible without a stiff sole or ankle, getting feet caught is not an issue. if I wear foot ware, it is water shoes or neoprene boots.
When I rebuilt YCourier I had the seat originally placed near center. That was a bust as I didn't have the control I wanted. I ended up moving it back around 20" which sounds nuts but for a WW hull it works for me. When I drop to my knees I am about 5-6" ? behind center line and it's that perfect place, for me, for boat control. You'll find out when you take it out. I find seat placement seems to me to be a personal preference kinda thing.
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I had a solo canoe that arrived with the seat mis-installed at the factory. The front edge of the seat was 2” aft of center. It felt sorta wrong when I paddled it on some ponds and small lakes in benign conditions.
I took it down the Susquahanna, which was moving along at a decent clip aided by a tailwind. Or not aided, it was everything I could do to keep the canoe pointed downriver.
There was a thwart 2” behind the seat, so scooting back on the seat was not an option. What should have been a relaxing daytrip was an exercise in frustration, and luckily I never needed to kneel and make it even more bow heavy.
LOL ! it was like paddling one of those round sleds.
back into the shop it goes
back into the shop it goes
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At least you know that the seat is wide enough to trim some more when you move it back. I just measured my Northstar Polaris and the front edge of the center seat is just under 6 inches behind the middle of the boat which is close to Jim's recommendation. The Polaris seat is low and meant for sitting whereas my Blackhawk's center seat is canted and 11 inches behind center and feels perfect for kneeling which puts a little more weight forward. I once had a Royalex Wenonah Rendezvous and that boat was uncontrollable with a dog in front of me until I replaced the rear thwart with a kneeling thwart...your boat may also have some wenonahness (not much volume in bow to support you compared to stern). You might put the yoke back in and sit on a small cooler and experiment with seating positions until you find the right spot. Good news is that you are becoming an expert and will be able to give advice to others.
I think throwing some weight in the bow is going to be a must also
G
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Good description of paddling bow heavy.
You can likely use the aft seat holes as the new front seat holes and effectively move the seat back 11”
About preferred seat height, a friend recently installed a hung center seat to a very exacting height. In search of the perfect combination of seat drop stability and foot space for kneeling he cut and recut pieces of dimensional lumber at different depths and installed them for test paddling.
Unsanded, unfinished and unvarnished, just drilled and machine screwed in place under the inwale for test paddling. Once he found the perfect depth he cut seat drops (with a slight cant angle) to that height and sanded, varnished and installed his perfect depth drops.
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At the risk of arguing with a big martial arts guy right now I think you'd need a ton of weight in the stern. I think the Wenonahs are pretty skinny in the bow and that's why they cruise faster than most royalex boats. I think Mike is right in that you could go ahead and reuse your current rear holes as the new front holes to get the seat back to about 11 inches behind center. You might first shoot an email to Wenonah or call them and just ask because there's a good chance they know the ideal placement for a center seat.
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“Front edge” and “center seat” from center hull are important to note when talking about seat placement. Front edge 6 inches behind the middle of the boat is about the same as center seat 10 or 11 inches back.
Wenonah has excellent customer service; Alison is a very knowledgeable. But their center seat placement seems awkward to many people, so I’d take any recommendation with a grain of personal preference salt. Note that composite and Royalex versions of the “same” canoe are often slightly different in length, the RX Wilderness is shorter than the composite Wilderness. The 17’ Cronje in RX is actually 16’ 8”.
The canoe I took center seat ill-controlled down the Susquehanna was a 1[SUP]st[/SUP] year Wenonah Wilderness in RX. I know two paddlers who have since bought composite Wilderness canoes; both immediately moved the seat back from Wenonah’s location.
Many Wenonahs are skinny in the bow, which has advantages and disadvantages. That skinnier bow and too far forward seat demonstrated one disadvantage at the end of the ill-controlled Susquehanna trip. There is a broken out weir with a sluice on river right that ends just above the take out. That sluice has a series simple point & shoot standing waves at the bottom.
Point & shoot and the bow completely submarined in the first wave. Having gallons of water in the canoe made the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] waves dicier and the third wave hit me in the chest. I was really happy to slosh ashore immediately at the take out beach with a boatload of water.
Side note: That was a New Years Day trip, and it was sub-freezing out. When I unloaded my canoe the throw bag had become a solid block of ice, unthrowable as anything other than a frozen brick of rope. Really happy to slosh ashore.
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I was trying to be appreciatively agreeable to the specificity of measurement.
Saying back X inches back of center, without specifying if that is the front edge of the seat, or the center of the seat, can be confusing.
so I called wenonah today and spoke to Alison. I pretty much had it figured out already- add weight/ballast to the front. Ideally enough tp paddle from the stern, but reduce weight if I move forward.
As a kneeling paddler I've always thought the seat in my Magic should be farther back a bit. It's located 4" aft of center as measured to the front seat edge. My experiments with a foam pedestal indicate my kneeling body weight would be ideal with the seat moved back 3 more inches. The Magic is rather trim sensitive. Hate to pop more holes in the gunwales but I think I'm going to do so this year.
When tripping its easy enough to load for the factory seat position but day paddles would be nicer with a more accommodating paddler position.
When tripping its easy enough to load for the factory seat position but day paddles would be nicer with a more accommodating paddler position.
