Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Glue Seats Thwarts?

Do you guys glue in your seat thwarts for the rowers and passengers seats? Or do you just use a few carriage bolts?

I could see how glue would make them stronger, but then they would be very difficult to remove for maintenance.

Im working on a 16' McKenzie, coming along much nicer than the Rouge I built a few years ago. Pictures soon to come!

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on February 2, 2013 at 3:33pm

Bolts do the job well and you should be able to remove seats for maintenance and potential changes.

At least one of the two seats should be adjustable so the load can be trimmed depending on the weight of the people riding and the weight of the rower. The traditional style is for the rowers seat to be stationary and the passenger seat in front of the rower slides forward or back to trim the balance of the boat.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on February 2, 2013 at 6:26pm

How do you get the front seat on the sliders to stay in place? I can foresee the seat sliding around... Guess it'll be something to ponder on.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on February 2, 2013 at 6:58pm

Ben, there is a "flap" of wood that rides on the same rail as the seat. It pivots from the seat but when weight is placed on the seat it provides friction so the seat won't slide. Take a look through the photos I have on my page from past Wooden Boat Festivals. There are several versions shown there.

Rick Newman

PS Got any pictures to show?

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Permalink Reply by tungsten on February 2, 2013 at 10:57pm

I've wondered about this also,what is a flap of wood Rick?Also i cant find "your page"of photos??I click on your name and i don't see a photos link.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on February 2, 2013 at 11:45pm

Tungsten, in the search bar at the top right of the page type in Rick Newman, click on the magnifying glass. When you get there scroll down on the left side of the page. You will find "Photos" 195 and "Albums" 8 . Scroll through those, on the first page of pictures is the first of these pics. Here is another from the the third page, there are several more.

Rick Newman

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on February 3, 2013 at 11:28am

There are two issues to worry about. First is that the seat stays in place if someone leans back on a seat. To secure this you can drill holes in the thwarts and slide the pipe through the holes. This way the seat will not come up off of the pipe. Most seats are made to be removed for easy cleaning. On these boats the builder has opened the drilled hole on the bottom of the thwart so it can come off the pipe if lifted straight up. To keep these seats from tipping forward or back a "hook" or flap as Rick is calling it is cut from a piece of 1/4 inch plywood or UHMW to pivot off of the pipe to remove the seat and pivot pack under the pipe hooking it into place.

An interesting byproduct of using wood on the pipe is that it does not want to side when people are sitting on it. The friction from the wood to the pipe is enough to hold it in place. The hook on each of the thwart ends that are sitting on the pipe add enough extra friction that it works very well as a low tech solution.