I am considering moving the seat in my WS zephyr back 1/2 to 1" and wondered if anybody has any experience with seat position? I am 5’10" and about 240 pounds, the kayak seems to be a little “bow down” to me, it paddles better if I load the rear hatch with water bottles, but at the end of the day, water is gone due to thirst. Also considering carving m own seat but this one is fairly comfortable compared to other kayaks I have paddled. Thanks, John
Sort Of
I’ve moved the seat back on a couple of Tempests and I think they’re the same as the Zephyr. What worked for me was moving the seat back one ‘bolt hole’. I lined up the front seat hole with the rear deck hole and bolted the seat in place. I put the bolts back in the front deck holes just to keep water out. They don’t attach anything to anything. I don’t know about the Zephyr but on a Tempest 165 you have to saw a lot of plastic from the aft base of the seat. My buddy has skills and a reciprocating saw. It made my Tempest much more ‘shin-friendly’.
bolt hole idea
I was going to drill holes and move it back about an inch but really liked the bolt hole idea. Will be testing it tomorrow, John
Test in in a side wind…
…to see how it responds. Ideally, if the seat is positioned correctly, you lean forward and the bow points upwind, lean backward, and the bow goes downwind. It can be very subtle, if noticeable at all…
Seat forward gets me maybe a little more speed; seat back gets me a little more stability. That probably depends on the hull shape of the boats; mine are wider behind the cockpit.
seat position
Before you put the seat in permanantly in the new location paddle in some decent cross winds. One problem of moving the seat and thus the CG back is you can end up with a lee helm, where the bow of the boat wants to only go downwind, this can be a seriously dangerous condition. There is little you can do on the water to fix it other than slide forward off the seat which won’t be very comfy if you need to do it for hours.
Bill H.
go…
for…it… at your weight the aft position maybe better for trim. you could easily be bow heavy. If you then balance the trim with gear fwd or aft you’re G2G!
steve