Seat for Classic Wood Canoe

[ancient kayaker]

I am building a wood canoe, Rushton's Wee Lassie design, and want to have an appropriate seat.

Does anyone have any pictures or know of some on the Net that I can look at for inspiration? The ones I have seen on books for similar style canoes are a pair of ply plates on a pivoted thwart with a ply seat bottom, and I wanted something a bit more ornate and maybe more comfortable too.

Currently I am working on a fan-back wood-slat design. Cane seats have been suggested but I don't think I can make one and the ones I have seen for sale are all for conventional canoes.

The Wee Lassie is a "sit on the floor" double paddle type canoe and needs a seat back.

[JEM]

http://www.unclejohns.com/boat/seat/default.htm

[alan white]

A fan design of vertical spruce slats 1/4" thick and tapering wider at the top, screwed into a curve scalloped into a thwart (like an adirondack chair) would be nice.

A.

[Alixander Beck]

The uncle john's chairs are nice and easy but I think it would look better with a fan design or something with curves that would compliment the lines of the wee lassie...

either way I am interested in seeing the end result.

will this Lassie be cedar stripped or Balsa as some have done.

[alan white]

Great project. Definately keep us up on it. Cedar, balsa core, or... like the original, lapstrake. Tom Hill has a good glued lapstrake process, very attractive and super light. You might want to check his site (if he has one, and I'm sure he would).
The Wee Lassie approaches the sensibilities of a stringed instrument, and requires a similar deft hand to build.

[ancient kayaker]

Great suggestions. The Uncle John seat is nice but too high for a Wee lassie. I have completed a curved adirondack style fan-back using 3/8 pine that happened to be laying around and it looks good but seems unnecessarily robust. I will make the seat bottom with cross slats per JEM's pic to replace the first trial ply effort.

I plan to hinge the back so it rests against the thwart when fully reclined so I can slide up and sit on the thwart for dry exits. It works but the hinges are ugly so I will design the slatted version with hardwood dowel pivots. If it turns out OK I will rebuild it in spruce or cedar.

The hull will be ply. I am using the lines by D. W. Dillion from the Adirondack Museum. I will probably use a variant of stitch and glue rather than glued lapstrake, but I am still experimenting with joint test pieces to ensure I get the strength needed before I start cutting. It should happen sometime this Summer.

Thanks for the interest; I will keep you posted on seat and hull results.

[alan white]

Have fun. You've got me thinking about one now. There's a pond across the street, but in the past I've hesitated to think of the bother of carrying a heavy canoe several hundred feet every time.
At under twenty pounds, the Wee Lassie could be hung up in the barn easily, tossed on the truck at a moment's notice, etc..
I can think of one way to build the boat that works for me. Easy to get red cedar clapboards around here. Mill to 1/8" and seal with epoxy after fitting, then build with light frames (though fewer) as per original, using copper brads, washers, and peening, gluing planks as I go.

[ancient kayaker]

With a tack where each of 12 planks crossed 47 frames plus lots more for stems, keel and scarf joints, the original construction method involved more than 1000 tacks. The planks were 3/16 cedar planed down thinner than that to achieve the weights recorded. The frames were 1/2 x 1/4 inch red elm, with robust oak stems and keel. It was innovative in its time, the NY builders were not using what they considered traditional construction.

Given access to marine plywood, fiberglass and epoxy adhesives, the brads and/or rivets would have been the first victims of progress in their yards, I suspect. The Wee Lassie would make a fine boat using glued cedar planks with frames or cedar strip and glass and the original builders, if brought back to life today, might just have gone with that. The frames would only be required to add cross-grain strength so you may get by with as few as a dozen.

I am going with ply at this time. At first I was considering using 2 inch wide ply frames spaced a foot apart to tie the planks together as an alternative to glued lapstrake, but I am now thinking of butted seams with glass tape on the inside and Dynol on the outside. In test joints unreinforced butt joints in ply have proved disappointingly weak. Currently I am running trials on method of getting the seams accurately butted without stitching.

[JEM]

sounds like a fun project. Please share your results.

[ancient kayaker]

I haven't given up on this project and will post results and pics when I have some. I was delayed by a fire in my workshop and subsequent repairs. I have started construction on a replacement for a wood boat that was destroyed, which will likely get a slatted fan-back seat as originally planned.

After that I will get back to the Wee Lassie. I think I have solved the problem of getting butted planks (not lapped) to stay aligned while I glue the seams (if it works I will tell how it's done). I may try a cane seat for that boat instead of the slatted fan-back type.

In the meanwhile, many thanks to those who indicated interest and provided advice and support.

[ancient kayaker]

OK, we're in business again. I just finished the replacement canoe for the one that was trashed in the fire last year; here's pics of the seat I did for that one. The seat slides on runners, reclines to allow me to slide mu butt up the seat back and perch on the top when getting in/out and folds for transporting. Material is cedar and pine, for a nice contrast, with a little baltic birch ply. No fasteners!

I am now looking at getting the Wee Lassie project back into gear, maybe a cane-back would look right for that one.

Many thanks for the ideas and encouragement.

[ancient kayaker]

As an update on the last post:

Once in the water I had to relocate the seat to level the boat. I found the sliding seat was unnecessary as the boat is much easier to get and out of than the plastic kayaks I was using; they have been dry for months now as this wood boat is lighter, faster and easier to paddle. Wee Lassie is still waiting for an opportunity to start as another boat building project got in the way.

When the boat demon calls, one has to follow ...