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Has anyone tried out a sliding bow seat from Essex Industries? In bow for soloing my Nova Craft tandem.

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Grand Junction, Colorado
I want to install a sliding bow seat in my 16’ tandem so when I solo I can move the seat a foot or slightly more toward center for better trim and maneuvering. I sit and paddle in flatwater with single and doubles blade paddles and kneel in rapids For stability. Ideas?

89385C0E-BB47-4947-8EDF-46CF88E0123E.png
 
Usually when there's a sliding bow seat there is a thwart close behind it ("... most installations ... one end attaching to a yoke or thwart"), and that thwart would be in the way of your thighs when you're sitting "backwards" paddling solo. Maybe there's a way to do it with a supporting cross rail below so it isn't in the way.

Have you considered a kneeling thwart?
 
I want to install a sliding bow seat in my 16’ tandem so when I solo I can move the seat a foot or slightly more toward center for better trim and maneuvering.

You want the bow seat to slide stern-ward so you can be scrunched up near the central carry thwart for better trim. I believe this is a very good idea if the tandem is still going to be used as a tandem. I can't tolerate paddling bow seat backwards and having to use 40-50 lbs. of water ballast to trim the canoe when I am day paddling solo. However, most sliding bow seats slide in the other direction, toward the bow.

Alex Comb of Stewart River Boatworks has installed the kind of sliding seat you want in his 15' Ami tandem canoe. The following two pictures show how he does it. I have no idea whether the Essex kit has the proper dimensions for the kind of seat you want.

Ami green sliding seat closeup.jpg

Ami green sliding seat.jpg
 
Wow the SRB boats are works of fine art! thx so much for sharing this with me Glen. I’ll keep debating the merits of the sliding seat for my 16’ prospector but I’m leaning more toward buying a slightly shorter version with the same stability—much like the Ami—for dedicated solo day and adventure tripping. I'm afraid these wood boats wouldn’t take the punishment our rocky bottomed rivers dish out—am I wrong? How do these wood boats feel compared to the modern composite and plastic boats?

I’m leaning toward the Esquif 15’ Prospector for the durable T-formax, initial stability, and good bit of rocker suitable to both flat and whitewater paddling. But the Nova Craft 15’ Prospector is in the running.
 
I want to install a sliding bow seat in my 16’ tandem so when I solo I can move the seat a foot or slightly more toward center for better trim and maneuvering. I sit and paddle in flatwater with single and doubles blade paddles and kneel in rapids For stability. Ideas?

View attachment 133209
I’ve pondered this issue for my prospector 15. Wood canoes are different than composites in yokage.
 
Hi, Randy,

Another option might be to remove the center thwart and replace it with a seat. Hemlock Canoe offers that with their 15ft-7in Eaglet III, which is set up for solo/tandem paddling. You'd also have to get a removable portage yoke, like the Conk Solo Portage Yoke, available from the Hemlock Canoe website.

Hemlock Canoe Eaglet III.jpg
Hemlock Canoe Eaglet III with solo seat installed.

But if you're already considering it, I think you'd be happiest with a dedicated solo canoe.

Tom
 
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