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Canoe seats

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Keeled Over

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Hello folks,

Curious as to your choice in seats.

I have used the fabric ones from Wenonah, and am currently using the GCI. It may be this is just the current state. Both of the seats did offer some comfort, but not a huge amount. I am constantly afraid the aluminum frame on the GCI will break and puncture a major organ, something you need.

I weigh 270ibs and all my 6'2" height is in my torso. Got some short legs. My back has been messed up since the 70's.

Have you folks tried any other seats outside of the 2 above and had good results? It is getting a bit more difficult to paddle long hours without some major squirming around.

I have considering trying my kidney belt, used in off road road motorcycle riding to see if that shores things up.

Thank you!
 
A lot of those add-ons are pretty narrow for big guys like us. I haven't tried the Wenonah, but I cannot stand the GCI. The strap may help quite a bit, but maybe not. I would look into changing the whole seat to something tolerable and working from there. Swift has some great seat options, but take some work to install. I ended up putting their wide/deep contour seat in two of my boats and love it. I have also considered buying their packboat seat and building up a minicell foam pedestal to mount it on so I'm not down on the floor.
 
Keeled Over said:
Hello folks,

Curious as to your choice in seats.

I have used the fabric ones from Wenonah, and am currently using the GCI. It may be this is just the current state. Both of the seats did offer some comfort, but not a huge amount. I am constantly afraid the aluminum frame on the GCI will break and puncture a major organ, something you need.

I weigh 270ibs and all my 6'2" height is in my torso. Got some short legs. My back has been messed up since the 70's.

Have you folks tried any other seats outside of the 2 above and had good results? It is getting a bit more difficult to paddle long hours without some major squirming around.

I have considering trying my kidney belt, used in off road road motorcycle riding to see if that shores things up.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
I’ve had good experiences with Ed’s Canoe in Vermont. Being a bigger guy at 235, I broke a wood seat and was seeking a replacement seat that would hold up to WW use. Called them and they offered me a heavier frame than they usually build. I’ve been very happy with that seat.

 
Thank you!

Great info -

Tryin', could you please send me a picture of your Swift install?

Will, thank you for the info on Ed's Canoe - gotta do some looking around on that site!

Great day gents!
 
If you've tried cloth or cane and found them inadequate you might consider either:
-A tractor seat, much loved for racing/cruising canoes
-a wider, more supportive flat seats. See the ones posted in the other thread, below.
- Ed's and others also have curved cloth/cane. These are also much praised on this forum.

This thread also called canoe seats, but in different category.

Canoe seats

A canoe seat can be the most important thing in a canoe ! It holds nearly all your weight. It needs to be comfortable, for both paddlers, in a tandem, as well as a solo. It not ! The canoe will sit on the rack more often, than on the water ! I see a lot of beautifully built Cedar strip...
www.canoetripping.net
 
Keeled Over said:
Thank you Tryin' - just what I needed.

Gotta order some stuff. Will post photo.
Click to expand...

When I ordered mine, Swift told me that I was the first to request the drops. As such, they didn't have a part number for them. I told them I wanted the truss drops for the Dragonfly, and that cleared things up.

Alicia is their parts guru, and she was fantastic to work with. A phone call was the easiest way for me to get things rolling, but she also responds to email, albeit with a day or three delay.

An installation note was included in the email correspondence that read as follows:

Everyboat is slightly different so this hanger will need to be trimmed to fit your desired height. We trim from the top flat edge of the hanger and it will not necessarily be a straight cut as everyboat is slightly different in shape and size or if your boat has an angle to the gunwale you will want to ensure that your hanger is cut to the angle. There are no pre-drilled holes in them either as if you're installing them to a seat that already has the holes in it they may not line up so they come undrilled. They come with a left side and a right side so the rounder smoother edge would be on the inside where you may rub against it where the squared edges would face the outside.
Please let me know your thoughts on all this,
Thanks!
Alicia Hodges

I ended up trimming about 5/8" off of mine to bring the seat up to where my boots would clear. The drilling requires a drill press and long bits (or some ingenuity/recklessness)

You will note that the bottom of the seat is not perpendicular to the hanger bolt. I debated using a spacer cut to the angle, or creating a flat spot on the bottom with an end mill, but ended up just flipping the jam nuts upside down so the radiused side of the nut mates with the hollow of the finishing washer. It seemed to firmly mate up, so I will roll with it for now.

I'm no wood worker, but we muddled through it.

Let me know if you need pictures or other clarifications.
 
Tryin has shown what I think are the best kind of seats. Wood frames with wicker are pretty but not that durable. I am tired of fixing them. Tractor seats are okay but ugly looking and don't drain water.

Changing seats and thwarts is one of the easiest ways to improve nearly any canoe.
 
Since I started making canoes, I was unimpressed by the small sizes of factory seats. On my second canoe, I made a comfortable seat. So I stuck with that same pattern to this day, with the exception of rise in the brace ( front to back)

I'm looking at flat seat webbing on my next seat.
The Snow shoe cord is great, but I want to give webbing a try.

5e5f1495-3a50-477a-abed-c0e6992b2f0e.jpg


Here is a pic of a seat I made, to match the Bell Magic. It's the small one. Yes ! Bigger is better !

eb2ae609-cc93-4fce-8f24-5c5acef3e275.jpg
 
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Tryin' said:
When I ordered mine, Swift told me that I was the first to request the drops.
Click to expand...
They will install/sell traditional seat drops but it's still a special order. :)

We had Swift install traditional drops on the carbon/Kevlar gunnels of our new carbon solo in order to raise the seat up another inch (from 7 in to 8 in) for better foot clearance and seat height while kneeling. With Swift's carbon layups they use what they call "seat pods" installed on the side walls to mount their wood/web seats with the angled front rail, as shown in your photos. It's a comfortable seat but doesn't allow for height adjustment because the mounting bolts for the front rail are angled into the pod and the geometry doesn't work when you try to raise the seat with spacers.

The pods are actually a good idea (saves drilling the more rounded carbon/Kevlar gunnels) and I can see how the setup could be made more adjustable with the angled seat rail if they mounted the front inset threads vertically and drilled the angled rail vertically so you could raise the seat using spacers and longer bolts. For a cleaner finish it might require a bit of additional labor to create inset flats on the top of the angled rail to accomodate the bolt heads.

Our special order setup (shown below) used their older seat configuration; it's good, but not quite as comfortable as the newer seat with the angled front rail. If I had to do it over I would do something similar to what you did and order their angled web seat uncut and undrilled, along with undrilled gunnels so I could mount the seat to custom drops. I guess I could still do that, but I'm reluctant to drill extra holes in the carbon/Kevlar gunnels. We'll just use it as is for now.

Added: Photo of special order seat.
 

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  • Swift canoe seat - special order-web.jpg
    Swift canoe seat - special order-web.jpg
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As a dedicated single blade paddler, I have a number of solo canoes that I prefer to have installed an elevated seat. In my old first gen Placidboat Rapidfire with a trim moveable race seat, I normally sit upon gel pads to raise me up a bit. When I ordered my new Shadow, Joe Moore tried to convince me not to have him elevate the high trim adjustable seat above the stock highest height because he said he had to correct the seat on the previous three Shadows he did that for because they were all returned by their owners who had wanted elevated seats but could not keep them upright on the water. Granted, it makes my Shadow rather tippy feeling and difficult to hold a heavy camera with a high CG at eye level without that dangerous wobbly feeling, but it paddles wonderfully easy and fast with single blade, which was my primary goal with that boat.

I then ordered a Swift Cruiser (more suited for tripping with a load) from Bill Swift, who added an inch and a half elevation to the racing style integrated footrest moveable seat. I can use my camera in that naturally more stable canoe, but it is not nearly as fast as the Shadow. I have just received a new Savage River Blackwater, also with a higher than stock available racing style seat installed. I trial paddled a friend's stock BW before, and loved it so much I had to have one. Since I received the BW, the wintery water of my lake is more white than black, so I am eagerly awaiting late March or early April for my first maiden voyage paddle in it.
 
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tketcham said:
They will install/sell traditional seat drops but it's still a special order. :)

We had Swift install traditional drops on the carbon/Kevlar gunnels of our new carbon solo in order to raise the seat up another inch (from 7 in to 8 in) for better foot clearance and seat height while kneeling. With Swift's carbon layups they use what they call "seat pods" installed on the side walls to mount their wood/web seats with the angled front rail, as shown in your photos. It's a comfortable seat but doesn't allow for height adjustment because the mounting bolts for the front rail are angled into the pod and the geometry doesn't work when you try to raise the seat with spacers.

The pods are actually a good idea (saves drilling the more rounded carbon/Kevlar gunnels) and I can see how the setup could be made more adjustable with the angled seat rail if they mounted the front inset threads vertically and drilled the angled rail vertically so you could raise the seat using spacers and longer bolts. For a cleaner finish it might require a bit of additional labor to create inset flats on the top of the angled rail to accomodate the bolt heads.

Our special order setup (shown below) used their older seat configuration; it's good, but not quite as comfortable as the newer seat with the angled front rail. If I had to do it over I would do something similar to what you did and order their angled web seat uncut and undrilled, along with undrilled gunnels so I could mount the seat to custom drops. I guess I could still do that, but I'm reluctant to drill extra holes in the carbon/Kevlar gunnels. We'll just use it as is for now.

Added: Photo of special order seat.
Click to expand...
That's amazing. I had a Swift Cruiser 12.6 last year I wanted to convert to a hung seat, but with the cross-section of the C/K gunnels did not think it feasible, nor had I ever seen it done before. I should have talked to Bill. Swift Gunnel Cross Section.jpg
 
Well, I'll find out how well those carbon/Kevlar gunnels hold up over time. Bill must believe it's a reliable setup because I've seen other Swift carbon solo canoes with similar seat drops. I think the key is that the drops provide some reinforcement between the gunnels and the seat rails. The one piece drops are shaped to fit right up against the gunwale and help stabilize the forces. The thwarts are attached in the same way so it must work but It's fairly easy to over tighten the bolts and the gunnel starts to compress/collapse. I suppose a larger diameter washer might help but we each weigh less than 150 lbs so I'm not worried.
 
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tketcham said:
Well, I'll find out how well those carbon/Kevlar gunnels hold up over time. Bill must believe it's a reliable setup because I've seen other Swift carbon solo canoes with similar seat drops. I think the key is that the drops provide some reinforcement between the gunnels and the seat rails. The one piece drops are shaped to fit right up against the gunwale and help stabilize the forces. The thwarts are attached in the same way so it must work but It's fairly easy to over tighten the bolts and the gunnel starts to compress/collapse. I suppose a larger diameter washer might help but we each weigh less than 150 lbs so I'm not worried.
Click to expand...
If you ever get a chance to take a pic of the seat showing the underside of the gunnel and the drop interface I would love to see it.
 
M Clemens said:
If you ever get a chance to take a pic of the seat showing the underside of the gunnel and the drop interface I would love to see it.
Click to expand...
tketcham, I went back and watched Bill's videos from 2014/2015 and did see some canoes with the C/K gunnels and conventional seat drops, but they were in the process of introducing the side pods about that time.
 
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