So I cut out the original seat and lowed it to the floor of the kayak as it was too tight for me. I’ve heard of people putting foam seats. I tried just putting the original on the floor with some small pieces of mini cell velcroed to the seat to hold everything in the correct position. I took it out where there was a little wind and although I fit much better into the kayak, now i am more wobbly. A question is would the boat track the same now that my weight is on the base of the kayak? the original hung from the cockpit coaming. For the wobbling I may life the seat a half inch more or so and see if that increases the stability. Or maybe I have to give up and get a different boat. Im pretty sure this is a LV and i am 175cm and 90kg so maybe its just a bad marriage altogether. Any advice much appreciated.
Lowering the seat should normally reduce the wobble. So that may just be about how well the seat is now anchored or you are feeling things more.
That said, I just did the conversion and I have you coming in at 198 pounds and 5’9". Which is an average sized paddler at least on the male-biased scale that was being used at the point the Romany was designed.
LATER ADD - needed a little more coffee - One of the dirty little secrets about the original Explorer and Romany LV designs was that neither altered the hull or hence the hull capacity. It just changed the size of body that could fit thru the smaller keyhole.
It is possible that they actually redid the hull design at some point, mine is the original and still running OK so I would not know.
But you may just be sitting on the tight side in a boat that has more wobble than you expect. If that is the case, comes down to time in the boat.
By “wobbly” do you mean side to side tippy or the kayak is not tracking as straight? Usually lowering the seat will make the kayak more stable, not less stable. And adjusting the vertical center of gravity without changing the fore and aft center of gravity (or the overall weight) should not have any effect on tracking. Since you mentioned tracking and stability I just want to be sure what problem we are trying to fix.
And yes, you may be too big for the kayak. LV NDKs usually have very low, flat decks since the hulls are the same as the larger volume versions - just the decks were changed.
The higher the seat, the less stability and more feeling of wobbliness.
sing
Check above edit from me, I misspoke. Actually if an original Romany LV your weight is fine. The 5’9" remains an issue though.
Just a guess here, but it sounds as though your lowered seat is not stable/secure. From you description of lowering the seat, it appears that you do not have any support other than the bottom attachments of foam/velcro? The original seat would have support on both sides and the bottom. A foam seat should solve the wobbly issue you are having by having both lateral and bottom support.
What hank said. You need a new seat now unless you;re going to firmly attach the old one into its new position. You’re wobbling because the seat isn’t secured.
thanks, I have thought about a foam seat. I moved it an inch or so towards the back and this gave more stability. it seems the lower seat needs slightly different positioning to get the same stability. in adition to the velcro i have put some thin peices of foam under and on the sides of the fibreglass seat and this has helped keep it more snug
it wasn’t soo much the wobling of the seat, i just noticed the kayak wasn’t behaving the same, moving the seat slightly more towards the back has increased the stability quite a lot