Paddled this new-to-me-and-looking-almost-new-after-27-years Jensen 18 for the first time yesterday; had it ballasted with the equivalent of a heavy (for us) tripping load, and she’s both fast and quite tender.

Looking for ideas - feel strongly that the seating on this boat is too high for me/us. Would love to bring it down two inches & see how that feels - suspect it will make a big difference.

A few years back we had a fun discussion about lower (and much lighter) seating on my solo Northstar Magic. I removed the stock seat and made one out of Minicell foam, and that turned out very well. 2” lower, comfortable, adjustable (front/back, not height) and it shaved about two pounds from the canoe weight. Build thread is in the DIY forum.

So this one is different. I don’t think minicell is the right answer here. Removing the long fore/aft support tubes upon which the seat slides and hanging them underneath where they currently sit might be possible, but would likely involve shortening those tubes, and I worry that the forces on those tubes would be very different if they are hung vs resting on top of the support structure. Spots that are currently riveted would likely need a bolt, and I think the tube would need some kind of a plug to prevent deformation and to distribute force.

Plus it feels like I’m going to butcher this fine canoe by making these changes.

If anyone has suggestions, I am all ears.

Perhaps drilling out the current angle, and installing some flat aluminum wide enough for your desired drop, and remounting the angle to the flat (or sections of flat)? Dropping the slider might cause problems with binding at the fore, which might require repositioning the aft parts on the cross piece. A less aesthetic way would be to just drop the whole thing and redrill. FYI, I drilled through my '83 OC-1 to install adjustable footbraces, and there have never been any cracks.

Can the seat be removed from the sliding mount? If so, it might be possible to flip the slider, lowering the seat ~3", and requiring no changes to the primary support structure. If that's too much drop, putting spacers between the seat and the slide would be easy. I can't see under the seat, so have no idea if this is possible.

TZ

Removing the tubes that the seat sits on and hanging those tubes under the supports seems very doe able to me. With the right tools and fasteners it should come out unnoticeable.

I don’t think it will be a butcher job if you do good work.
Yes, lowering a seat will lower the center of gravity and thus might make you more comfortable in the canoe. However, it surely appears that seat sits pretty low in the canoe already. But it is a matter of personal preference just like adjusting the seat in a car.

Tom

A few comments/ideas...

1) regarding forces, with the stock set-up you already have three stacked aluminum tubes on each side taking about half your weight. You can stack those tubes any way you like and the forces will not change except for the negligible additional load from lowering the rear but not the front. You could move the lateral support below the attachment point on the hull instead of above. Bolts are an upgrade over rivets so no worries about taking the load. Unless I'm missing something I see no reason for a plug but if you want a plug use a hardwood dowel.

2) just FYI I replaced the aluminum fore/aft slider tubes with wood dowels on a Souris River canoe just to make it quieter. Hardwood dowels are pretty cheap and quite strong and you could putz around with them instead of butchering stock parts. A 1" dowel might flex a touch more than a 1" aluminum tube but I think dowels will easily handle the loads.

3) is there anything stopping you from removing everything and just attaching a regular canoe seat to the hull supports? It looks like that would lower the seating position about the amount you want. It would also save a little weight if that appeals to you. :)

You do realize that if you butcher the boat the Canoe Police may show up at your house and confiscate it.

good idea.

I appreciate all the thoughts on this.

I'm going to get more time in it as-is before a decision on any modifications...however you've given me some good ideas on how to proceed with potential changes.

And also to avoid the Canoe Police.