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Canoe seats

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.
I got my Osprey in 2011 and it has a sliding seat so no truss drops to help clamp the seat to the gunwales. I have no concerns with the gunwales, the stiffness and strength seem fine and well matched to the boat. Sliding seat makes extra room for a dog.
PXL_20241009_202228821.MP.jpgPXL_20250101_195346928.MP.jpg
 
I got my Osprey in 2011 and it has a sliding seat so no truss drops to help clamp the seat to the gunwales. I have no concerns with the gunwales, the stiffness and strength seem fine and well matched to the boat. Sliding seat makes extra room for a dog.
That's good to know, about the gunwales that is. And a sliding seat would be handy. I used to hunt rabbits and hares with beagles. Great personalities. I had one beagle that preferred to hunt partridges though. Not always sure what she was trailing until it either ran, or flew.
 
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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.
Here you go...
You can see how they (Swift) shaped the edge that aligns with the underside of the gunnel. Nice work. (That's the leading edge of the seat by the way.)
 

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Here you go...
You can see how they (Swift) shaped the edge that aligns with the underside of the gunnel. Nice work. (That's the leading edge of the seat by the way.)
Really nice work! So much nicer than the dowels I saw in the 2014/2015 Swift videos. I wish I hadn't sold that Cruiser, this would have been so much easier than fashioning side pods.
 
@stripperguy how are the blocks that the seat bolts to secured to the hull? Seems like a good set-up for a break-away seat in case of entrapment in whitewater.
Those cleats have Cabosil thickened epoxy to bond them to the hull.
Somewhere here I had posted a plot of a shear test that I did on a sample cleat/epoxy/hull assembly. A single cleat failed at over 300 lbs load in shear, and even then, it was the cleat that failed, not the epoxy joint.
Seat frames are screwed to each cleat, but I supposed one could use some 3M Dual Lock to provide a "breakaway" mounting.
 
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