Cedarwood Prospector II

[Plainsman]

Folks,

Just wanted to let you know that I am now the proud owner of a Cedarwood Prospector. Thanks for all of your input--back when I originally posted about the boat. As I got it around Christmas, I haven't had it back in water. But it is currently in our carpeted basement where I regularly go down and sit in it. On that note, I'm just curious where the rest of you prospector owners have your seats positioned. I'm debating about lowering them a bit, but I'll probably wait until I can get it back in the water before I make that decision. Currently, the seats are just a bit too high for me to kneel and still have my bumm resting fully on the seat. If I just tuck my legs under the seat, I can brace my legs against the boat, but my knees aren't resting on the bottom of the boat. Any comments? Cheers, Jeff

 

[Giiwedin]

I have a 17' Prospector. It's a pretty deep canoe (14") and both the bow and stern seats are dropped about 2". This seems about right to me - low enough so I can kneel resting against the leading edge of the seat, but not so low as to lose power and control in my paddling. Fortuitously, this is how it arrived from the factory in 1965.

To paddle effectively from a kneeling position, your knees must be on the bottom of the canoe. I suppose you could rest your knees on an extra lifejacket, but that's hardly ideal. Only option is to drop your seats. This is not a big deal, but you'll need longer bolts and stringers, and may have to cut the seat width to fit the narrower hull section. Be careful about dropping more than two inches because it can put a real strain on the bolts, especially if the seats aren't tightly braced against the sides of the hull.

If you're dropping the seats by more than an inch, you may want to consider getting a shorter paddle for optimum paddling.