Sliding seat in a Bell Magic?

Why doesn’t Bell put a stock sliding seat in the Magic? By all accounts , its a great sit and switch canoe. I could see where the stock bench seat placement would be optimal for a unloaded canoe, but once you put different weight packs fore and aft, wouldn’t it be nice to have a sliding seat? Has anyone put a slider in their Magic?? Where did you get the parts?

Doesn’t need it
My Voyager slider gets used a lot. God knows the J boats need the slider.

The Magic is not nearly as trim sensitive though. Never been in a situation where I needed a sliding seat in that boat.


Eric, can you kneel …
… off that Wenonah slider?



I’m guessing that would depend on knee spread and how high you could set the seat.

Sure Bet
WeNoNah’s slider is the least expensive, most easily available option. Savage and GRE - Newman design have similar slider options; take your pick. Placid isn’t selling their all composite rig to outsiders. Maybe Crozier sells theirs?

Kneeling on the Wenonah slider

– Last Updated: Sep-07-10 6:16 PM EST –

Wenonah makes at least two frames for sliding seats.
The Frame that is in the J-boat I gave to Erik Eckilson who gave it to JackL was about 12" wide. Tough to kneel in that one.
The frame in my Voyager is 7" wide. That makes kneeling easier. I didn't much care for the plastic bucket seat that came on it though. It cut off my circulation and was wide enough that entrapment was still an issue with the narrow Voyager gunwales. I replaced that with a carved minicell saddle glued to the frame the bucket was bolted to. So now I have a sliding saddle. Long kneepads in the chines and I'm a happy boy!

I still don't think there's a need in the Magic, tripping or not but I sure can't think of a good reason to NOT put a slider in that hull.

wenonah custom made
I have ordered custom dimension sliders and pedestals from Wenonah to fit a variety of boats. told them how high and how wide I wanted the pedestals. no problem.