Middle Seat

Hey Paddlers,



So im looking into a middle seat for my Minnesota ii and im having trouble deciding what i want to get. I think I’m either going to buy the Wenonah drop in seat

http://www.wenonah.com/Items.aspx?id=47



or the Spring Creek canoe seat/yokehttp://store.springcreek.com/Seats/Seats/Spring-Creek-s-Canoe-Seat-Yoke-p1598.html



The Spring Creek seat replaces the yoke and would sit in the middle i think. The drop in seat would sit in front of the yoke i think, which makes me worried about balance. Is it better to have a middle seat just forward of the yoke or have it in the middle? I feel like having it in the middle would be better, though i have limited experience with 3 people in the boat so i don’t know.



My other concern is I don’t know how low these seats sit compared to the normal tractor seats i have in my boat. I don’t want a seat that sits up to high and throws off the balance. Anyone here use either of these seats? how high do they sit?



Anyways any help or wisdom on middle seat options would be appreciated



Thanks



TJ

a center seat/yoke option
Ed’s Canoe sells a combination of the two which works very well. I put one in the middle of a Malacite I restored for our daughter and its been a hit. The MN II is two feet longer than the Malacite, so one caveat would be that it might not be an appropriate yoke for long or difficult portages.



www.edscanoe/yokecane-center-seat.html


For kids, or for an adult? Paddling?
I suggest you study carefully how Wenonah sets up their Minnesota 3, and thoughtfully apply that to the smaller MII.



I’ve never thought much of Spring Creek, but I suppose their add on seat would be safer than their sponsons.

seat
The ed canoe seat looks like it sits kind of high for my tastes. I’ve had kids sit on the yoke before and even with their small size it really made the canoe tippy. The Minnesota iii seat sits behind the yoke so maybe the wenonah drop in seat would be the better choice. The seat is mostly for my grandmother who very graciously bought me my Minnesota II but i’ll have kids in it sometime and i might have a 3rd adult with me on an over nighter every now and then so it needs to preform decently.

A seat for Grandma
Ah, then here’s another option: an inexpensive folding beach chair, low to the ground, with pool noodle foam taped on the metal legs (the legs are perpendicular to the center line of your MN II.) This has a low center of gravity but keeps Grandma’s posterior out of the wet. It is both comfortable and removable when you want the space for tripping. Plus it is very cheap; we used a smaller version of this in our Jensen 18 when our kids were smaller. You can do an adult size and a kid size for less than a center seat. I can email you a photo if you’d like. Have fun!

Might want to build onto where mckenna-
road is coming from. Imho, anything secured from the gunwales is too high, and is the popular marketing-thing with those NOT in the know. Go with something that sits on the floor/bottom-of-hull and work your DIY tweaks into a chair to make comfortable…(ie raising with some padding…etc). Why do I have a feeling it may take a little tweaking, with padding(most probably), to make fully comfortable…as I’m skeptical(sp?) that any company these days is REALLY dedicated to canoe travel anymore, but, believe me, the canoe will be the most stable that way.

Seat drops have not been mentioned
The seats themselves never are affixed to the gunwales.



Drops are used. Six inches is not uncommon and a nice height to allow older people to get in and out gracefully.