Is it possible to adjust my seat position aft an inch or so?
A little more foot room (and knee room getting in and out) would be nice (I got the boat as a hand me down from my dad, he’s a little bit shorter than I am).
It looks like the seat is moulded together with sides that extend up to the coaming, where there are a couple of stainless bolts. I loosened those, hoping that would free the whole thing up to slide back, but it didn’t. Anyone know if it’s bonded to the hull?
I have the same kayak and I have not seen any way to move the seat. Maybe it’s possible, but if so I don’t know what it is.
Maybe Tom at Top Kayaker can answer that question.
I have a composite Shadow, but I think it has the same rigid plastic seat back as the plastic kayak. I removed that seat back and replaced it with a back band on mine. I seem to be able to slide my butt further back in the seat with the back band, so that might be an option if you can’t move the seat.
Thee roto-molded Shadows have a different seat then that composite shadow you show Wolf. The older Roto-molded ones have a stiff aluminum tube (a keelson) that runs full length along the hull’s bottom and the seat if made to go over and around that tube.
So, I just went out to my shed and looks at y kayak closely. Now that I consider the question I may have to retract my statement above. It does appear that some movement may be possible. The seat pan seems to be held down to the keelson by 2 screwed that go into holes drilled into that tube. If those 2 screws were removed and then the 4 screws (2 on each side) were also removed that hold the seat to the hull at the 3:00 and the 9:00 positions right under the cockpit combing you may be able to move the whole seat forward and back, about 3-1/2 to 4. The screws that go into the aluminum tube can simply be re-drilled and the screws may be self-tapping… If not so other new screws can be substituted or if you measure the threads you could buy such a tap and cut the new threads very easily.
Moving the side hangers for the seat limits your movement. There are “shelves” molded into the upper deck that the seat hangers mount into, and they are only as long as they were made, so any movement past that would run off the mounting surfaces and not allow you to re-hand the sides of the seat. If there is enough room to satisfy you the whole job probably would not take an hour. Buy new screws for the sides however. You’ll need to punt screws with washers and nuts into the old holes and use a caulk in them to keep them from leaking. Once those hangers were re-located you’d have 4 open holes there in a place that any water that was shed off your body and over the spray skirt would fall right on the mounting shelves and into the empty holes. So you’ll need to plug them for sure.
You could probably still remove the seat back and replace it with a back band. Looking at old catalogs, I think the seat back might be the same on both, just held in with three nuts and bolts at the hinge point. But based on what you describe for the seat mounting, moving the entire seat sounds like it might be the way to go. FYI - I got rid of the seat back because it was very uncomfortable, just not molded to the shape of my back.
cut the seat combing on the sides move the seat base backwards to where you want it. Get a piece of TEXTURED 1/8" ABS on eBay to make a splice plate. Place it behind seat uprights lapping top and bottom then pop rivet all together with black Flathead rivets on each side. 8-10 rivets each side. then take seat back and turn it upside down and reinstall it . Bottom is shorter than top so you can put it back farther. Did it on all my CD hulls except Titan and Libra XT tandem only working with glass.
