I just acquired a used Outer Island with a keyhole cockpit and am going about making it more comfortable for myself. I found the stock seat to be comfortable on the bum but had trouble with legroom & position of the thigh braces, which contacted me more at the knee than thigh.
I removed the stock seat and found sitting directly on the floor much more comfortable, allowing several different leg positions as well as adding some extra stability to the boat. Moving the seating position forward a couple of inches made the thigh braces fit much better and might possibly help with the boat’s tendency to leecock. This position would be great with maybe just the addition of a thin “butt pad”, except for the fact that I’ll be sitting in whatever bilge water happens to be in the boat.
Does anyone have any magical solution to avoid sitting in water without having to raise the seating position any more than necessary?
minicell seat
I have an OI also. Replaced the seat with a minicell pre-carved seat blank from Redfishkayak
http://www.redfishkayak.com/foam.htm
A different foam seat
I replaced the seat in my OI as soon as I got it with this one:
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/boatgear/kayak_comfort/0000-HBP00.html
The hip pads wedge in under the coaming holding the seat in place without glueing. This allows me to take the seat out to use as a camp seat during breaks.
me too
That’s the seat I use in my Pintail too. Love it.
I did glue mine in because I added minicell underneath to raise the seat height, and added backing behind the hip-pads to snug things up to my liking.
It’s simple, and I’ve found it very comfortable.
CLC seat
How tall is the CLC foam seat? The stock OI seat isn’t really very high, no more than 1" in the back and maybe 2" at the front, but that’s still high enough for my legs to be cramped. After sitting on the floor, too, just raising an inch or so feels quite a bit less stable. It might be worth a little trade-off, though, to avoid sitting in water.
The only other thing that bugs me is that the cockpit is to short for me to enter butt-first and get my legs in, unless the seat were moved even further back than stock, which wouldn’t be comfortable at the thigh braces. I suppose taking the back brace out altogether (I’m using a short foam block) would allow easier entry but I need the support at this point.
seat height
Under the sit bones, that seat is probably only 1/2" high, at most. I’ve added about an inch under it to put my sitting height up near that of the original pan seat in my Pintail.
For the back brace, you could try lowering the pillar you’re using. Shave more foam off the top front edge, so it’s more rounded perhaps. I find that I really only need the support right down at my sacrum, a couple inches above the bottom of my seat. Or you could try eliminating the back rest, and using a butt-ridge, built up on the back edge of the seat. I haven’t tried that, but some people like it quite a bit. And it would give you more clearance.
Outer Island:
Not trying to address your problem here, but interested in your thoughts re: moving the seat slightly forward. Specifically, will it help the tendency to lee cock. I have tried up to five pounds of ballast in the forward compartment, but note very little difference. I would like to see how any changes you make affect this tendency. Overall, I really like the O/I, but in a stiff crosswind it can be a challenge. It sure doesn’t need a skeg! Maybe I just need heavier feet. Ken
By tbe way,
here is another nice seat option. Check out: Spirit lines skin boat store.