always tweaking my boat. i’ve got a bell rob roy and have installed a wenonah sliding seat in it. i was looking at other bell solos and the seats in those boats is further to the rear than on a factory rob roy. the guy at bell said they’re pretty much all 8 inches behind center. doesn’t look like it in the photos. looks like the magic and merlin II have different spacing for the seats. how far should a canoe seat be back from center? i’m thinking of moving my thwart back a few inches to give me even more room to slide back.
seat placement
I like to have my sliders set up so that when the seat is centered on the rails, the boat is neutral in the wind. By neutral, I mean that if you just sit in the boat and the wind is blowing, the boat will turn sideways to the wind. That gives me enough fore/aft adjustment to trim the boat for different conditions. When I paddled the Rob Roy in the wind it was just slightly bow heavy when I was right back against the rear thwart, so if I were to put a slider in one I’d want to move the thwart back a bit. I think I’m heavier than you - somewhere around 220 at the moment - so that might make a difference. For what it’s worth . . .
Thanks Chad…
…for asking the question.
I was thinking of fooling around and putting a removable seat in our C-2 racing canoe,(so I could try it solo) and was wondering the exact same thing.
JackL
weight
i weigh about 175 with breakfast in me a layer of clothes, etc. i looked at the thwart last night to see how far i could move it back. there’s not a lot of room between the end of the thwart and the trim right now. maybe a quarter inch. i’m thinking it’s good to have some room since wood tends to change shape periodically. maybe i should just order a new thwart and install it. by moving the thwart back several inches, i’d get several inches of sliding ability toward the rear. that would have to help in tailing winds.
Canoe seat install
I also am putting a middle seat in my canoe.
The esquif mallard now has a center seat yoke combo but the older model i have has a yoke
that will be taken out,seat lowered to 4" and
porter canoe is building a cane seat with a solid
center to accept a aluminum pedestal and i
can take off and on a action padded folding
seat to use solo,might even change the other two
cane seats if it works out fine.
you’re welcome, jack
glad to help. 