Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Z on April 14, 2009 at 7:38pm

Use 1" or wider webbing. I saw a makeshift seat once. This guy had forgotten his anchor rope. So he took the rope from the seat and used it as an anchor rope. Then he took one of the spare 1" tie down straps from his truck and wrapped it like you would a rope seat. He used the ratchet to develop the tension. It was really comfortable and the tension was great!

(It is still like this today!!!!)

A practical seat would be a bench seat like the typical front seat. But put a foam pad on it. Hinge the lid so you have full on storage.

I like the rope. Use soft poly rope. I sat on a hard or coarse poly rope and it burned my butt! I like the classic looks of a rope seat too. But I have friends that dislike them too. Or so they say, so I get stuck rowing!

Whatever you do, don't put those dang ugly folding plastic battleship grey seats in it!

Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Ronnow on April 14, 2009 at 7:47pm

Dave,

I was thinking of some thinking of something like the front bench seat. The thing I dislike the most is the lack of back support. All of the water I am on is very flat so you really can get away with having a back rest of some sort. I will tinker.....

Thanks again,

Jesse

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Permalink Reply by Greg Hatten on April 14, 2009 at 8:06pm

Hey Jesse...
Check out the "folding seat" Randy and Sandy came up with for the front seat... it would work for the oarsman and it's very comfortable with great back support... also has a traditional look and feel to it, but it's rope. I saw it up close at the Tatman shop last month & really liked it. Something to consider. At the boat show last year, I saw a seat with a "cane weave" that looked pretty comfortable... no way to tighten that one if it begins to sag (that would be a problem with my fat butt).
See ya on the river, I hope.
GH

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Ronnow on April 14, 2009 at 8:14pm

Greg,

Great seat isn't it? I love it, however I called Sandy the other day to order that Deks oil they have and he informed me that it would 200 dollars for the seat. I believe that the labor necessary to build that seat is pretty intense thus the price.

Cane would be interesting, on the old Tatman site there was a picture of a guy that all of his seats as cane.

Thanks,

Jesse

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on April 15, 2009 at 6:16am

When i purchased my boat is was set up with the plastic seat. ! I found it uncomfortable, kind of wobbly and hard to step over to get to and from the back of the boat. I also found that when I converted the seat back to rope I could really keep my body, legs (including butt) locked in and get much more powerful strokes.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on April 15, 2009 at 7:35am

Yup, you guys are right about the price of the seat. It's a great seat but like any chair, has a lot of parts and is labor intensive. I'm hoping to get a set of plans out before the end of summer. The amount of wood isn't too bad.

Be careful of a back on a rowers seat. That is great for all but white water. Not being able to lean back into the oar stroke when you need to will rob you of power when you need it most. The short back that some tractor seat type seats use have also caused back problems for some rowers. For both of these reasons the rowers seat usually does not have a back.

You might think about a removable back that can be supported like the front bench seat backs. You could pull it out when you get to big water and then put it back in when you are rowing the frog water.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on April 15, 2009 at 7:26am

My Willie boat has a web strap seat that is a little more comfortable then rope, but I don't mind either personally.

I finally ditched the traditional wood backs and pads on my wood boat and mounted some brown tempress seats (again like the ones in my Willie boat) on my woodie after my passengers kept complaining how uncomfortable the front bench seat was. We fish for some pretty long hours during salmon season, the tempress seats don't look bad IMO and are good for all day comfort.

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Ronnow on April 15, 2009 at 9:58pm

Thanks to all for the advice. I think I am going to give the webbing a try. I will post some pics soon I hope.

Thanks again,

Jesse

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