I looked at an Old Town Discovery 118 Solo Canoe at a store today. I want to purchase a solo canoe but I do not like to sit while paddling…I like to kneal on the bottom of the canoe and tuck my legs under the seat while resting my bottom on the edge of the seat. This solo boat had a molded seat like that of a kayak (which I find harder for me to paddle than knealing in a canoe) Does anyone know if you can put in a traditional type canoe seat or would that make paddling a solo canoe too hard? Do all solo canoes have that type of molded seat? This will be my first experience with a solo canoe.
Webbed!
Get a nylon webbed seat and mount her at an angle. These are common and called kneeling seats sometimes folks just install a kneeling thwart. A quick search on the boards will yeild tons of info/opinnions on angle and height.
Seat types
The good news is that all solo canoes do NOT have this kind of seat. Thank God very few canoes do, solo or tandem. Those Old Town Discovery seats are junk.
That’s the only part of your question I can answer. Wait, there’s another part. If you can remove the molded-in seat, installing a standard webbed seat should be easy. Whether you need to go at the boat with cutting tools to remove the molded-in seat might best be answered by someone else. Good luck.
The standard seat is terrible
It can be replaced. The seat placement anyway is too far aft.
But if you move it so the front edge is 8 inches off center the seat would have to be quite wide and so wide that unless you are a big guy ( and I see F in your profile) its going to be difficult to get a vertical stroke.
Folks wonder why I harp on that but if you want to J stroke with a minimum of hassle it really is important. If you just want to switch sides and tack down lake or river less so. But that is way less efficient and in the end wastes energy.
Tools
No cutting necessary, just a few different sizes phillips head screwdrivers and and few small sockets. Its tight quarters but the seat comes out rather easily. Unfortunately the holes for the plastic seat dont line up with the wooden seats that I found. So at least one set of holes will have to be drilled.
Ed’s Canoe
http://www.edscanoe.com/index.html
Great seats for great prices. I don’t work for them, I’ve just had a very good experience with them. Check out the “Factory Specials” section.
Yes, if you get the Disco, by all means chuck that aweful plastic seat and get something better.