I really like the wider seat, butt
I think I may have to make my own because I want the seat a little deeper (12").
I think I may have to make my own because I want the seat a little deeper (12").
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Happy Mathematics Day! ❌📐♾️
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P2240002 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrNow I can launch the FishFinder at any PA Fish Commission put in or PA State Park for the next two years.
It is very rewarding to bring one back and make it the way you want it. A lot of us are kind of addicted to this process.
Repairing a wood and canvas canoe is horse of a different color. I find it tedious at times and just have to put it down for awhile.
Repairing a wood and canvas canoe is horse of a different color. I find it tedious at times and just have to put it down for awhile.
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FishFinder Knee Bumper Surgery
After a few test paddles I elected to remove one superfluous pair of Yoga block knee bumpers from the Fishfinder, and do some custom shaping on the remaining set.
Due to the solo seat placement and strap yoke balance point on the hull I had initially installed pairs of split knee bumpers on either side of the strap yoke. My knees hit the front set of knee bumpers, the aft set were installed in case some short legged person borrowed the canoe.
But after a couple test paddles I decided to eliminate them because, A) my knees were nowhere near in contact with the aft set, and b) the adjustment rod for the Slidelock foot braces was an awkward reach underneath.
I had intentionally installed those knee bumpers wider than usual, knowing that after a few test paddling trips I would want to carve some custom comfort depressions in them.
Make that wayyy wider than needed. I originally sized them to be 21” apart, which is my 31” inseam sweet spot off a foot brace bar with a more deeply hung seat. Differently distanced this time because the seat in that uber stable flat bottom canoe is hung ½” under inwale; my comfortable leg spread is further apart with the high-mounted seat, and the areas of knee and calf contact are very different. Wider than needed and carved down to fit is better than oopsie, not wide enough.
Both sets of knee bumpers had been installed with the usual “best practices”. Pad perimeter masked off inside the hull, couple of dry test fittings with the cut-to-size foam, so I knew how I was going to hold and emplace those get-one-shot instant-stuck pads. Three timed to dry coats of contact cement on the minicel (EVA foam), two on the hull.
Last coats still tacky hit the pad and hull surface briefly with a heat gun, just starting to flash whitish on the foam is perfect, pray for (practiced) alignment and press. Immediately clamp in place overnight, and next morning run a bead of adhesive sealant (E-6000, Plumber’s GOOP, anything) around the foam-to-boat perimeter to help prevent dirt/grit infiltration.
PC240028 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I have minicel going on 20 years old installed that way, still holding firm, even the edges un-lifted. The sandbag weights are atop the contact cemented heel pads, with some wax paper in between. Same GOOP (or G/flex) perimeter bead around them. Works for vinyl pad D-rings too, zero edge lift.
That contact cement technique works well closed cell foam. So well that, after several minutes of putty knife poking and heat gun futility, having freed only a small corner of a superfluous Yoga block, I decided Plan A was no good.
P8110002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I could eventually have removed them, poking, gouging and cursing, while leaving a lot of fugly purple foam and adhesive residue behind. Which I would then have wanted to cover for aesthetic reasons.
That was a nope. Plan B, which should have been Plan A; mark a cut line near the inwale on the superfluous set, grab the coping saw and leave a shallow slab of yoga block intact under the inwale.
P8120005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
30 seconds to cut down each superfluous knee bumper. I could have gone slower and left fewer kerf marks, but there is some sander action forthcoming that will quickly smooth things over.
Last time out I marked where my knees and calves contacted the foam on the forward set. Not just a “dimple”, but a custom angled recess. Gawd bless the always available/doesn’t smear (or leave Sharpie on body parts) canoe pencil, for note taking or marking outfitting needs while underway. That’s why there is a pencil sized hole in the yoga block beverage holder.
Careful belt sander action first, that is a fast and very aggressive way to shape foam. Belt sander shaped incrementally; sand a bit, stop, put the canoe on the floor (vacuum out the debris first), check the fit, sand a little more.
P8120010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
After a couple of test sits the knee bumpers were near a perfect fit.
“Near” perfect; even with the custom concave knee/calf cups the right angles top and bottom need to be rounded over, and a bit still needs to be taken off the bottom front of the pads to accommodate my endomorph legs mid-calf. A belt sander is too aggressive for those minor shapes and bevels. Dragonskin “foam shaper” to the rescue.
P8120036 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Handy stuff. Handy, sadly discontinued stuff. Glad I stocked up on the last couple packs available before it vanished.
There is some drywall shaping material that is similar. Or an RO sander with coarse grit and a foam interface pad. Or maybe a Surform Shaver, a shaper with which I have never had much minicel success. Whatever is used the few seconds of finish sanding on minicel, even just rounding off any right angles edges to present less opportunity for sheer forces againt the foam makes a difference.
Custom Dragonskin shaping is fast, and can be very precise. A couple of minutes swiping that perforated foil cheese grater where Sharpie indicated, another test sit, a bit more shaping and those are some custom foam bumpers, shaped to exactly and most comfortably cup my knees and calf angles.
P9010006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Don’t know about the rest of the family but those knee/calf bumpers are now sublimely comfy for me. Most of the boats family members have claimed dibs on were likewise custom outfitted to their physiology and paddling preferences, including multiple test sits.
For leg pressed comfort some strategic “little off here and a little off there” makes a big difference. With the high mounted seat the deepest indentations in the foam, at the top of the leg angled knee cups, are now 25” apart, and the rest of the bumpers are fitted conforming to my physiology and leg spread preferences.
The superfluous parts of the aft bumpers I cut off may prove to be useful in some other boat. Provided I don’t mind the purple. I thought those were blue, like much of the other outfitting.
P8120041 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I need to buy some grey yoga blocks. And more slabs of minicel.
After a few test paddles I elected to remove one superfluous pair of Yoga block knee bumpers from the Fishfinder, and do some custom shaping on the remaining set.
Due to the solo seat placement and strap yoke balance point on the hull I had initially installed pairs of split knee bumpers on either side of the strap yoke. My knees hit the front set of knee bumpers, the aft set were installed in case some short legged person borrowed the canoe.
But after a couple test paddles I decided to eliminate them because, A) my knees were nowhere near in contact with the aft set, and b) the adjustment rod for the Slidelock foot braces was an awkward reach underneath.
I had intentionally installed those knee bumpers wider than usual, knowing that after a few test paddling trips I would want to carve some custom comfort depressions in them.
Make that wayyy wider than needed. I originally sized them to be 21” apart, which is my 31” inseam sweet spot off a foot brace bar with a more deeply hung seat. Differently distanced this time because the seat in that uber stable flat bottom canoe is hung ½” under inwale; my comfortable leg spread is further apart with the high-mounted seat, and the areas of knee and calf contact are very different. Wider than needed and carved down to fit is better than oopsie, not wide enough.
Both sets of knee bumpers had been installed with the usual “best practices”. Pad perimeter masked off inside the hull, couple of dry test fittings with the cut-to-size foam, so I knew how I was going to hold and emplace those get-one-shot instant-stuck pads. Three timed to dry coats of contact cement on the minicel (EVA foam), two on the hull.
Last coats still tacky hit the pad and hull surface briefly with a heat gun, just starting to flash whitish on the foam is perfect, pray for (practiced) alignment and press. Immediately clamp in place overnight, and next morning run a bead of adhesive sealant (E-6000, Plumber’s GOOP, anything) around the foam-to-boat perimeter to help prevent dirt/grit infiltration.
PC240028 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI have minicel going on 20 years old installed that way, still holding firm, even the edges un-lifted. The sandbag weights are atop the contact cemented heel pads, with some wax paper in between. Same GOOP (or G/flex) perimeter bead around them. Works for vinyl pad D-rings too, zero edge lift.
That contact cement technique works well closed cell foam. So well that, after several minutes of putty knife poking and heat gun futility, having freed only a small corner of a superfluous Yoga block, I decided Plan A was no good.
P8110002 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI could eventually have removed them, poking, gouging and cursing, while leaving a lot of fugly purple foam and adhesive residue behind. Which I would then have wanted to cover for aesthetic reasons.
That was a nope. Plan B, which should have been Plan A; mark a cut line near the inwale on the superfluous set, grab the coping saw and leave a shallow slab of yoga block intact under the inwale.
P8120005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr30 seconds to cut down each superfluous knee bumper. I could have gone slower and left fewer kerf marks, but there is some sander action forthcoming that will quickly smooth things over.
Last time out I marked where my knees and calves contacted the foam on the forward set. Not just a “dimple”, but a custom angled recess. Gawd bless the always available/doesn’t smear (or leave Sharpie on body parts) canoe pencil, for note taking or marking outfitting needs while underway. That’s why there is a pencil sized hole in the yoga block beverage holder.
Careful belt sander action first, that is a fast and very aggressive way to shape foam. Belt sander shaped incrementally; sand a bit, stop, put the canoe on the floor (vacuum out the debris first), check the fit, sand a little more.
P8120010 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrAfter a couple of test sits the knee bumpers were near a perfect fit.
“Near” perfect; even with the custom concave knee/calf cups the right angles top and bottom need to be rounded over, and a bit still needs to be taken off the bottom front of the pads to accommodate my endomorph legs mid-calf. A belt sander is too aggressive for those minor shapes and bevels. Dragonskin “foam shaper” to the rescue.
P8120036 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrHandy stuff. Handy, sadly discontinued stuff. Glad I stocked up on the last couple packs available before it vanished.
There is some drywall shaping material that is similar. Or an RO sander with coarse grit and a foam interface pad. Or maybe a Surform Shaver, a shaper with which I have never had much minicel success. Whatever is used the few seconds of finish sanding on minicel, even just rounding off any right angles edges to present less opportunity for sheer forces againt the foam makes a difference.
Custom Dragonskin shaping is fast, and can be very precise. A couple of minutes swiping that perforated foil cheese grater where Sharpie indicated, another test sit, a bit more shaping and those are some custom foam bumpers, shaped to exactly and most comfortably cup my knees and calf angles.
P9010006 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrDon’t know about the rest of the family but those knee/calf bumpers are now sublimely comfy for me. Most of the boats family members have claimed dibs on were likewise custom outfitted to their physiology and paddling preferences, including multiple test sits.
For leg pressed comfort some strategic “little off here and a little off there” makes a big difference. With the high mounted seat the deepest indentations in the foam, at the top of the leg angled knee cups, are now 25” apart, and the rest of the bumpers are fitted conforming to my physiology and leg spread preferences.
The superfluous parts of the aft bumpers I cut off may prove to be useful in some other boat. Provided I don’t mind the purple. I thought those were blue, like much of the other outfitting.
P8120041 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI need to buy some grey yoga blocks. And more slabs of minicel.
Last edited by a moderator:
Mike, per our discussion, I edited your triple spaced paragraph separations to single spaces. Simple backspacing did it for me.
Old conversation I know - but I wonder if this is the same boat for sale in MD right now - I inquired a bit about it but got no reply. Interestingly set-up!
Most likely. The gentleman who outfitted this canoe lives there.
Bob
Bob
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