canoe seat positions

[Troy Clowater]

greetings one and all,

first time poster here, i took on a canoe project to get me out of the house and off the computer in the winter months. last winter, 2010, i built a mould and this year i built the canoe, well, most of it. talk about an undertaking, i've never had a carpentry course in my life and here i was building a round boat. but it was a great challenge and i learned a lot.
i started with the 15' cheemaun the 35" beam. the canoe is off the form, the decks are on, the nose enclosed and i'm ready to finish the last 5/32 plank on the top. can anyone advise me at which ribs the stern seat, 1/4 thwart, yoke and the bow seat are drilled at. i get the impression the seats are critical in relation to the balance of the canoe. you only get one shot at drilling holes, maybe i've become more of a perfectionist than i've ever dreamed. there are 47 ribs, 43 true and 4 false.
any help would be great, as my math teacher always said" if there's an elephant in your path, don't eat him all at once". i ate a lot of elephants this winter.

thanks
troy

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

There is one center thwart and one aft quarter thwart at rib 8 from the center. the fwd seat is at rib 8 and 10 from the center and the aft seat is at ribs 15-3/4 and 18-1/4 from the center.
Those placements are very general. There is no perfect placement because loading conditions, paddler weights and strength and water conditions are always constantly changing. All you can do is get the seats where they make the most sense for most of the time. If you are a big person and in the stern most of the time you may want to move the stern seat a bit more toward the center. If your bow person is a lightweight then the fwd seat may me moved forward a bit but maybe the dog likes to sit in the bow also so the seat may need to be placed a bit aft.
That is all to say that there will never be a perfect placement for a canoe seat unless the canoe is used for one purpose only and paddled by the same people.
Expert paddlers tend to like seats closer to the bow or stern. solo paddlers want the seat closer to the center.
The placement above seems to suit most people well. When paddling solo the paddler would use the bow seat. Also don't forget the small hand thwarts that go just behind each deck. Very handy for lifting the canoe and for attaching ropes and tiedowns.