Need wooden gunwale info

[Guest]

Thanks for info. Does that catalog show seat and thwart placement?

The catalog doesn't give specs but does show seats and thwarts. You can go online for the same info.
http://www.madrivercanoe.com/product/index/products/versatile/explorer_series/explorer_16_rx/

[Disclaimer: The following comments come from someone who has adjusted the positions of seats but has never built a boat himself.]

The center thwart should of course be placed at the center of balance. That means you need to place the seats first. When I've adjusted the position of seats for tandem and solo tripping use I've done it on the basis of torque values. That involves an assumption about how much the bow and stern paddlers are likely to weigh, as well as the weight of packs and their placement. Just for example, I repositioned the seats in a tandem so my ex-wife and I would balance each other out and not need a 20-lb sandbag. She weighed 125 lbs and I was 165 lbs.

First, because both of us were kneelers, I put our centers of gravity 3 inches ahead of the front rails of the seats. Then I played with different seat positions to get the torque equation to be the same for both bow and stern. That equation is:

Paddler weight (lbs) x distance from geometric center (feet) = paddler torque in foot-pounds.

I don't remember the actual numbers, but if I placed the stern paddler's center of gravity 5 feet behind the boat's center, that would create a torque of 165 x 5 = 835 foot-lbs., with the front rail 3 inches behind that. The bow paddler, needing to exert the same torque (to trim the boat level) would need to be 835/125 = 6.7 feet ahead of center. Whether those positions would work depended mostly on how much room the bow paddler would need, and partly on the width of the stern paddling station. And I discounted the weight of the seats themselves.

Once you get the seats placed you can find the balance point and position the center thwart.

On the other hand, if you're looking at a similar weight difference but expect to switch positions, set the seats up for equal weights and bring along a suitable counterbalance.