I found an older Wenonah Royalex canoe with the bucket seats and foot brace that have been riveted through the hull?
Wouldn’t the rivets be prone to pulling through?
No more than other fasteners with “heads” of similar diameter. Of course IF it is installed properly. Rivets are fast and economical. They are used in production boats.
You are talking about a canoe?..tandem kayak?
It’s a Wenonah Tandem canoe.
I think rivets for seats is a bad idea. Vast majority of Wenonahs I look at have cracks propagating from rivets. Need to be larger surface area imo for high stress areas. Cheap to make though!
It would depend on the interior and exterior diameter of where the rivets contact the hull. You could always replace them with marine grade truss head bolts on one side and lock washers, fender washers, and acorn nuts on the other. Use something like Lexel or neoprene flat washers to waterproof.
Rivets have the advantage of being quick and easy to install, waterproof if installed correctly, and resistant to coming loose. Their disadvantage is that they must be drilled out to replace and require an expensive special tool to reinstall large diameter rivets.Large diameter specialty rivets are generally sold by the box and can be expensive as well.
I have never liked Wenonah seats, thwarts, and foot rests.
It is no big deal to replace the seats with ash seats and seat drops hung from the gunwales.