Remove seat older CD Slipstream?

Hi- I’d like to remove/replace the seat in my older (Canadian made) Current Designs Slipstream. It’s an awesome boat, but the fiberglass supports for the seat are molded into the main body. They drop straight down from the cockpit rails making the seat super-narrow and super uncomfortable. (Full disclosure- my butt has gotten wider, but the seat never was that comfy to begin with.) I removed the screws that attach the seat to the supports, but the underside of the seat is securely attached to the bottom of the boat. Not sure if it has been glassed to the hull, don’t want to take the chance of causing hull damage while trying to pry it loose. If I can get the seat out, I should be able to cut the supports out with a Dremel without causing any damage. If anyone has some ideas or experience with this problem I’d really appreciate your input! Thanks

cutting the seat out
I remembered something about this and went back to a review of the CD Suka in the Aug 2008 issue of SeaKayaker in which one of the testers ( a 5’1" 150 lb female) liked the boat a lot but not the seat which she found uncomfortably narrow.



Here is the response from Bill Kueper of the CD Design Team: “Unfortunately, alterations in seat width are limited to decreases only. All CD composite kayaks utilize an integrated cockpit coaming/composite seat hanger that is glassed to both the deck and the hull; the deck and hull are effectively connected by two composite pillars. This engineering feature provides additional support to the deck/coaming at a critical stress point and eliminates seat sway. This design choice also establishes the maximum seat width.”



Your Canadian built CD boat is from an earlier time, but it sounds like the same seat design and design rationale. So if you are looking at removing the seat pillars (or the entire seat, pan and pillars) you may want to weigh the benefits of doing that.




thanks!
Thanks for going to the trouble of hunting the article down, I really appreciate it! Hadn’t thought about the hangers adding to boat strength. What to do… there is a week-long trip coming up with 15- 30 river miles each day, I won’t be able to get out of the boat by the end of the day if I leave it as is. I’m probably going to dremel the hangers off at the coaming anyway and cut the seat sides down into a flatter ‘tractor’ style seat. No place to attach a backband, but I really need to work on my torso rotation anyway! I scored some free brick-sized blocks of firm minicell foam, will try shaping it to the sides of the hull from the seat to the coaming to add support.

hey glad to help
you gotta do what you gotta do in order to fit in the boat. If you’re going downriver at a fairly easy pace you won’t be cranking on the cockpit sides anyway. Heavy duty bracing or rolling might be a diff cat.



Enjoy your trip!