Rookie here...wondering height of front seat and level?

Well I finally jumped in...I've been reading this forum for a few years...last spring I finally got some time and got my shop finished so I started in on a double end with transom from Roger's fine book...between the book and reading this forum I got the hull built and I just turned it over yesterday...I found 1/4" okuome in Casper Wyoming of all places...the rest of the parts came from stuff I had in my barn..the frames are cherry and the chines are white oak or elm...can't tell...now I am trying to figure out how to level the seats and how high the passenger seat should be above the floor boards.

  In the book it says that the passengers should be below the sightline of the rower but the passengers' feet are on the floorboards plus the natural rise of the boat seems to put them way above the rower seat...

  Also I am trying to figure how to level the seats along the water level line..

  And the more I read about anchors the less I seem to know about them...may forget about that for this year...I would love to get this boat on the Bighorn at least once this year...just to christen it and drink champagne...and the kids are talking about a rivertrip on the Smith..

  Any advice or comments are greatly appreciated...and I'm glad to finally  post on here.. cheers...Pete

 

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Boats looking good. More important is the rowers seat so the oars work out good. I`ll let someone else comment on the frt seat. Lower than the sight line might be nice for the rower, but suck for someone tall in the frt. Just something to think about ;)

As far as level goes, here's my opinion - if the frames are plumb, the boat is level (at least during construction) - on the water is another thing. If I can get the snow of my boat, I'll send the heights I used along.

I tried for a launch permit on the Smith - if you've got one, you're a lucky guy!

Hey Pete, nice looking boat and congrats on starting your build! Passenger seat in the traditional boats are relatively low, not only for the oarsman to see over the passengers, but also to keep the center of gravity low. The boats were designed to run swift whitewater rivers and in order to maintain some semblance of stability, low is good. Top of passenger seat is about 12 inches above floor boards at #6.  If you are not worried about stability then you can put it higher of course. Typical dinner table chair seat height is 18 inches. Oarsman seats were typically low in the traditional boats also, about 6 inches below top of handrail. I always felt like I was rowing too low and so I like the oarsmen seat higher at 3 inches below inside handrail The only practical way to level the seats is during construction on a flat level surface. Like Dorf said, everything changes in the water, number of passengers and weights. That is why the passenger seat is designed to slide, so you can move it fore or aft to keep the boat as trim as possible depending on who you have up front.

Thanks for the advice guys....something tells me that building a second boat is much easier than the first...years of woodworking experience doesn't help all that much in figuring out what needs to be done...except for the tools and tricks I picked up over the years...every thing I really need to know comes from reading through this forum...this place is my boatbuilding 101 class....thanks again and cheers..

AS Mike said in the first post row seat height depends on oars,I would make up a temp bench and clamp temporary oar locks in and give it a test row in the shop.I'm a tall guy so i had mine at 15" to the top of the swivel seat.

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