Canoe Seats on the Old Town Guide 147

Old Town Guide 147

First let’s me say I love the canoe. Its spacious and generally performs well. With that said my biggest negative are the seats, the molded seats that came with the boat are the normal non-tradional formed plastic , not the ash and weave seats in the traditional canoes most of us were raised on. They are adjustable but the issue is if I paddle solo I have a lot of air under the bow to a quarter of the way down the down.
So looking at as well control issues I decided to change out the seats to cane , which are on order.
The disadvantage of the molded seats is the difficulty in (a) weathercocking of the bow end, and in turning in even a light wind. (b) overall lack of comfort of the seat itself, I even went so far as to use adhesive and ensolte padding, and its the same situation. Since there is no standard butt of human anatomy. In my kayaks the seats are formed plastic but the addition of foam cushion made an all day paddle great. But for some reason even with ensolite the seat in the Guide 147 is harsh on both back and butt.
As I said I love the boat and if you remove the seat back you can paddle from the bow seat if you add a stadium type seat over the seat, but after a while if you forget the seat the awkwardness of the formed seat presents a lot of agony trying to paddle the boat solo from the bow end facing the stern.
As well at my age I use knee pads when I sit on the knees. 68 yrs old here. With an upcoming long distance trip solo coming up I plan to do trial runs first and if there is a control issue go to something like the Guide 119 with cane seats which also add enough room for paddling on my knees where the current situation of the 147 seats do not.
Just saying people might want to consider the changing of the seats themselves which afford more paddling options of the Old Town Guide 147.

An OT 147 is kind of beamy to paddle solo.
The trad cane seats are good but need new cane once in a while. I have 3 canoes with cane seats at the moment, and it seems like one of them always needs to be replaced.

" if I paddle solo I have a lot of air under the bow to a quarter of "

Try a six gallon jug of water in the bow. Paddle from the rear. Fifty pounds more or less makes a difference…depending on your weight of course.

If you change out your seats, you can turn the boat around and paddle from the bow seat which puts you closer to the middle of boat. Alternatively you can add a center seat or kneel.

Trimming the boat is important, especially in the wind. You need to get the whole boat in the water.