I am tall and a lot of my height is above my waist. Consequently, I have a high COG. I am still getting used to the Voyager but it seems like lowering the seat a couple of inches would make it a little less ‘tender’ and I could get my knees below the gunnels for bracing. Has anyone done this? The aluminum seat supports would have to be cut and rewelded.
Some Thoughts
I am planning on ordering a new Voyager in a couple of weeks. The one I have been test paddling is outfitted with a set of simple mini-cell knee braces at the gunnel lines. I have found that by bracing out like I do on a sea-yak I am able to hold 45 degree turns very affectively. With my own boat I plan on also using hip pads that should allow me even deeper leans. With the ample ammount of secondary stability that this boat offers I don’t think I will ever have to resort to kneeling.
I keep meaning to take some pipe
wrap to use for gunnel knee braces. The more I paddle mine , the more I enjoy it, esp. since I put a cover on it .And it is fast. I can cruise between 4 and 5 mph without too much effort.I sent Wenonah a note to see what they think of lowering the seat.
contact
the Canunut on P-net. He had a J-boat with a high seat. he managed to lower it a couple of inches then I was able to stay in it. I am sure he will help talk you through it.
He talked me through it.
In case he doesn’t see this post, I’ll explain.
It is simple, assuming that you have two cross aluminum pipes as your support.
If they are bolted to the supports, just remove the bolts, and replace the whole seat and structure under the supports. You might have to cut a very small portion off the end of the pipes to make them fit.
If they are rivited to the supports, use a dremel or file, and take the heads off the rivits. Do the same as above, but you will have to drill holes in the cross supports and the side supports and install new stainless steel bolts.
If this helps, you can thank Canunut.
Cheers, and stay happy!
JackL
The Voyager has a cube , the
bottom of which is glassed into the boat floor.I think the 4 uprights will have to be cut, shortened and rewelded.
Cutting the upright square tubes
is the only remedy for too high a seat. Jack L gave the correct method for lowering a tandem seat or side mounted solo seat. Since Wenonah went to the welded seat frame and glasses it to the bilge, there is nothing to take apart and shorten. If you could locate some square tubing that had an inside dimension equal to the outside dimension of the frame tubing, then you could cut out a length and use the larger dimension tubing as slip couplings over the frame tubes and rivet them together. This would elminate cutting the glass bond and removing the seat to do the modifying, and the final reglassing into the hull. You could also make the couplings long enough to drill spaced holes in them and have a vertical adjustment.
Last crazy idea would be to junk the aluminum frame altogether and use an automotive scissors jack mounted to the bottom of the hull. Put your seat on top of it and have infinitely adjustible vertical rise. Add a lug wrench and you would be all set for ‘flat water’
Bill
I had already thought of the first
solution. I think I’ll pass on the second. I could remove the whole assembly and use different height bail buckets.
Hey Bill…
Leave the lights on.
We sent in our entry today.
Bald paddler says you handle all the details. All we have to do is show up with our paddles.
We met the southern P-net contingent during the Bogey and Bacall, and now we are eagerly looking forward to meeting our northern counterparts.
Cheers, and stay happy!
Jackl
time in boat?
how many miles have you put on that boat? conditions? I’ve changed my seat height dozens of times, and each time i thought i’d made an improvement. i paddle a bell and actually put a wenonah sliding seat in it. so far, i’m very impressed. if you’ve only spent a few days or less than 100 miles or so in the current set-up, it might be smart to wait on any major change.
Chad, I think that is good advice
since I have less than 100 miles in it.
I found out that Wenonah makes
different height pedestals. The guy I talked to said the old one could be cut out(it is glassed in) and the new one installed in an afternoon. I still like Chad’s advice.