seat height
any chance of a sliding bucket seat several inches off the hull?
Rapidfire seats
Hi Yanoer,
I have been an extremely happy owner of a Rapidfire for a year. I like sit on bottom canoes propelled by double paddles, so I’m the paddler the canoe was designed for. I love the speed and handling of the canoe. In fact it works for me so well that I think Joe, Charlie and DY borrowed my body during a senior moment to test the prototype hull.
Being a bottom-sitting-double-blader, I’m not the ideal person to provide you with info on single blading a Rapidfire. After all, with the followers of the kneeling-solo-single-blade religion, I’m just above a bottom feeder. Thats fine, I’m too old to let others opinions bother me. More importantly to your question, there are other paddlers who liked the Rapidfire hull so much that they pushed Charlie and Joe into modifying it for single blade use, a style of paddling that is closer to Charlie’s heart anyway.
My Rapidfire has the lowest seat installed. It does position you into leaning against the back band. When I demoed the canoe for a second time before ordering one, they had just started making the medium height seat as an option. I liked both seats for different reasons and couldn’t decide between them. So, because the medium will fit on top of the low, I had the low installed and a medium height seat built that I can slip on top of the low. The medium seat positions one more a little forward, so when using it I’m free of contact with the back band.
I like and use both seats. When my 62 year back is feeling a little cranky I use the low seat and welcome the support of the back band. When the back feels fine, I use the medium seat and prefer the better torso rotation not leaning on a back band allows. I tried a high seat at Placid’s gathering in the Adirondacks and at Raystown. Raises one up a bit more and pitches one forward a bit more. Interesting, but since the medium moves me off the back band also, I’ll leave myself with two seat options for the present. The highest seat pinches the butt a bit if one is well endowed in that area (smaller depression in top of molded seat). Each progressively higher seat level moves your weight very slightly forward, and I could feel a tiny but noticeable difference in handling with the different seats. Were I to order a Rapidfire with the high seat I would discuss with Charlie and Joe the desirability of placing the high seat a slight bit more rearward. Not much, as this is a delicate balance. A movable seat that is height adjustable would be ideal, if Charlie and Joe can figure out one that doesn’t add much weight- an almost impossible task.
Since you want to use a single blade and not lean on the back band, I would suggest that should you you order a Rapidfire (highly recommended by a biased owner), order the high molded seat or better yet, the hung seat that they are now offering. As always, paddle one first before buying one.
Dave
The single blade
That Marc O is designing for the RapidFire is for the sit on the bottom paddler.
Kneeling or sitting high is not synonymous with single blade…you can be low.
You would be amazed at how many paddlers are fellow bottom feeders at times…many of us paddle canoes with several techniques.
Thx for the slip over seat technique…hmmm