Now that I have a foot brace in my Guide 119 I want to replace the seat. I am going to put a "real canoe seat" in. My questions:
1)Looking at seats from Ed's Canoe which would you choose? 13 or 18 inch wide standard seat, contoured seat, or cane bucket seat?
2) I am thinking 3 inches below bottom of gunnel. I know this may seem high, but I like a higher seat and want to be able to get my feet under seat to kneel.
3) Should I move the seat forward? Thinkin it will help trim boat, but the OT Pack and Novacraft 12' Trapper both appear to have the seat in same gunnel position as the Guide? I know it is personal thing to experiment with but are there good reasons to move seat or not?
I would. Although I believe the factory seat position on the Guide is a few inches closer to the center than on the Pack. All I can say is, I find tracking and stability to be considerably improved if the seat is positioned so that the front edge of the bench is very close to the center of the canoe. The 119 is so short that maneuverability is never going to be a problem, and tracking ability always will be, so anything you can do to improve tracking will help. In the Pack when I first got mine, every forward stroke had to have some correction in it, even sit and switching every stroke would make you zig zag down the river. After moving the seat forward, it was more like you could do two, maybe three straight power forward strokes before having to correct or switch sides.
I too like a high seat position, though more because I do a lot of fishing in my canoes and the higher I sit the better (it also gives me room underneath the seat to put an auto battery box with 5 Plano boxes full of fishing lures). But I very seldom kneel anyway.
Seat Comments As to the width of the seat, use the width of your butt as a guide. A pretty big person might want that seat that’s 18 inches wide. I sort of think the other choice of 13 inches might be narrower than average, but I’ve never payed much attention to the width of a normal seat so I am not sure.
I can vouch for the extra comfort of a contoured bench seat compared to a flat one, and that’s true even when kneeling.
Contour Seat Thanks for the reply. Seems 13 inches is pretty standard.
I’m really leaning toward the contour, but I also am thinking to use a Sit Backer and wonder if that’s compatible with the contour seat? Or if there is soemthing like the sit backer that might be better witht the contour seat.
Seat position Thanks al. I think I am going to use the current foward seat mounting holes in the gunwale to be the rear holes on the new seat. Glad to hear it may make using a single paddle a more enjoyable experience.
Moving seat forward I have a Discovery 119 and front of the seat is almost 8" aft of the centerline of the boat. I am going to move it forward - not sure how far yet. On YouTube there are a couple of videos about moving the seat forward (and up) in an 119. I am not sure I would do it the way the poster did (aluminum frame) but I will be adding a better seat farther forward than original. I also have to redo the thwarts as they have a rot issue at the ends.
Hallo,
sorry for poor english, I learned it in school 40 years ago!
It's very simple to replace the seat and to build in a webbing seat. You don't need any hardware like longer screws or something like this. Only the seat is needed. And after changing seat the canoe is tree pounds lighter! Look for the picture in my canoe review (german): http://www.canadierforum.de/t9570f12-Old-Town-Discovery.html
For better trim I drilled new holes in the gunwale and moved the seat 10 cm (4 inch) forward to the front.
Lupover , love that seat and your English is great. Much better than my German!
I hung the new web seat from Ed's canoe. I also bought hanging kit from Ed and hung it 2 inches below the gunwale. I moved it forward using the existing forward holes as the rear holes. This placed the forward edge of the new seat just behind amidship.
Haven't had it out on the water yet but will this weekend on a fish camp trip. I'll report back on how she handles.
I took the Guide out with new seat at 2" below gunwale. I did not capsize but it took a lot of concentration.
In part because I was on a man made lake with a lot of stumps just below the surface and had I hit one would have surely gone over. I ended up spending my fishing time in the OT Vapor 10.
My overweight self is just too much to have CoG that high in this boat. I am going to lower the seat another 2" (4" below gunwale) and hope that is the sweet spot.
Also moving the seat forward did improve the trim.
Other than that it was a beautiful but unseasonably warm weekend, with good fellowship and good fishing.
Checked my 119 I have been following this discussion and as I was walking by my early 1990’s OT119 I stopped to measure how the seats were hung. They are just over 3.5 inches below the top of the gunnels. I have replaced the seat twice in its long life but have never changed the hardware that mounts it.
It always surprises me when folks think this boat is tippy. I have fly fished out of it for Many years without noticing this. It is slow and does not track very well. But tippy? Not so much.
I think when I drop it a couple more inches ( and I lose a few more pounds, I’m down 9, but many more to go) it will be perfect! With the double blade paddle 2" below the gunwale feels too high.
The stumps on the lake this past weekend were a real bother - the only time I have unintentionally capsized this boat is hitting unseen strainers.
