I have a 16 ft Wenonah Prospector. I took out the original tandem seats and put in a solo truss seat closer to the center of the boat. I needed to remove both tandem seats to accommodate gear. The new seat I added uses a truss and is flush and solid, so it more or less acts like a thwart. I was hoping someone with experience could look at the photos in this link and let me know if this boat looks structurally sound, or if I need to add an extra thwart in the stern and bow. I plan to add alot of weight in the boat to test it, but any advice will be much appreciated.
I placed two photos of the boat at the bottom of this page:
http://www.hnproductions.com/hnp/water.html
If photo link does not work please email me and I can send attached photos.
Thanks,
Hunter
It should be okay
Those seats you removed did nothing to brace the gunwales, as you can tell if you test the lateral resistance to flexing of those metal seat hangers. By the same token, the seat hangers you intalled do virtually nothing as well. A right-angle wooden joint with a hanger bolt though it will flex plenty if you put lateral stress on it (lay the boat on its side on the ground, and push down on the upper gunwale, and you will see just how easy it is to flex those new seat hangers. Next, try pushing on the gunwale where a thwart attaches!). The seat hanger's only function is to hang the seat. Only attaching the seat directly to the gunwales without hangers (resulting in a very high seat in this case) would make the seat act as a thwart. You'd need to add a triangular brace on the top side of the seat to fill in that right-angle bend below the gunwale if you wanted the seat to act as a thwart.
Anyway, the bottom line is that your current set-up is essentially the same as it was before, since all the original thwarts are there and neither the new seat nor the old ones do/did anything in the way of thwart function.
Probably you’re ok, though the seat
looks like it is too far from the center of the boat unless you take along gear for balance.
Nice pictures on your site. Didn’t know Alabama had a Murder Creek. I have pictures of Murder Creek in Georgia, west of Eatonton.
I’ve only run Weogufka in central AL, but a couple of us are planning to run Peckerwood Creek just to say we did.
Looks Like It Will Work to Me
I have an Esquif Mistral that I convert back and forth. Recently set it back up for solo. I have a thwart fore and aft, but used an old yoke as front thwart. Here’s a pic. And, BTW, BEAUTIFUL pics you have! WW
http://www.pbase.com/ozarkpaddler/image/133250835
Thanks
Thank you all for the advice and comments, it reaffirmed what I thought. It should be sound. Next, I’ll throw in weight and test it for even more confidence.
Hunter
looks great
Your boat looks just fine. But your pics are fantastic.