C-Forum

I'm getting a new-to-me 16' Nova Craft Prospector. I will use it primarily for class II - III whitewater.

Any experience on messing with the factory seat placement to improve it's performance? I'm considering moving both seats 6-8" towards the centre, as Mad River has done with its Freedom (compared to the Explorer or the OT Appalachain). Thoughts?

Pat.

Hi Pat
I have heard that Evergreen had moved seats around on the Starburst I think as recomended my Mike Yee. He would bea good one to ask.
Have you already got your Nova Craft? Will you be doing trips wiith it? I have a Clipper Merganser and it is an awesome tandem play boat, lots of fun and supper tough. I have 1 that is over 10 years old with lots of students paddling it, it also started it's career being under my truck as I endered over a 100ft embankment.
I have a new Hellman Slocan coming that is supposed to be agreat whitewater boat?

Did you sell your Otter yet?

Hi Yukon,

Sold the Otter.
Picking up the Prospector on Friday.

Doing a truck-ender into the ditch is quite the way to test the durability of a new boat! I think I'll just take the Prospector directly to the river.

Pat.

Good question.

Moving the seats towards the centre will lighten the ends and make the boat drier. But remember that in a canoe such as the prospector that has little rocker, the paddlers need to work the ends of the craft (strokes applied further from the pivot point have greater effect).

I'm not sure that moving the seat will create what you are looking for.

One thing to check is the seat height and the seat slant/tilt. You may wish to change the height (lower the seats) and adjust the slant or tilt (forward aft tilt). Some prospector rear seats are not level because they are hanging from the gunwales and the gunwales follow the shear line.
The back of the seat is higher than the front so when kneeling you keep sliding forward. Leveling the seat allows your butt to stay on the seat.

Good luck.

Thanks Paddle Power, Always good to hear from Friendly Manitoba. I'm still too bitter about the Jets to take part in the thread about Canaodians/hockey. Good for Khabiboulin though.

Good point on the trade-off between dryness/stability and stroke power. I may at least move the stern in some, another reason to adjust the seats is to give a more level trim for me and my lighter partner.

This boat will already be outfitted, so re-arranging things may not be worth it anyhow, just thinking and collecting thoughts.

Pat.

the comment about working the ends as reason to keep the seats forward seems counterintuitive to me. What makes a boat spin fast is rocker. In a boat without a great amount of built in rocker you get more rocker by heeling the boat over. The greater it is heeled, the more effective rocker as the stems come further out of the water. Seems like shoving more weight up towards the front, although helping with a pivot in a boat that is flat, would counter the effect of breaking the stems free--produced by heeling the boat. As mentioned a above, the boat also has to stay drier.

Same thing when settin up a back-ferry in a tripping boat. Bill Mason was always harping on moving weight foward to break the stern free.

I can't see that moving the seats closer together could do anything but increase performance of the boat. Depends on how Diane and Ron had it set up. I'm guessing it's there boat you are buying in Bellingham. Could be a pain in the butt.

I don't think boats have built in balance points for in regards to restricting distance of seats--look at Explorer and Freedom, which are essentially same boat, the latter given more rocker by flaring the bow and stern. And seats moved in on Freedom, as you mentioned.

A good resource on your new boat would be Bill Layman...you can go to North Water web site (spray skirts portion) and find his email. He and his partner have traveled around the world in a Nova Craft prospector. May he would have some ideas about optimum setup as they run the gammit.

good luck

Hi, thanks, and yes, it is (was) Diane and Ron's Prospector.

The knee pads are in the wrong place for us anyhow, and the stern seat does have quite a forward tilt, so I will try moving the seats at least a bit. I'll contact the North Water guy you mentioned.

I'll also ask him (and Nova Craft) why a 16' Prospector measures just over 15'6" and why the width (37.5") is more then the specs say (36")?

Any thoughts on trimming the yoke and thwart and bringing in the gunwales 2" before I re-do the seats?

Thanks, Pat.

From some playing around with flatwater boats (flashfires) for freestyle stuff we have seen that widening the boat by 2 inches or little less makes some real differences in how much more easily the ends come out of the water in a turn. Like the Explorer made into a Freedom, it's by widening the boat, increasing the flare, and increasing rocker.

But then if it's too wide for comfortable paddling?

The royalex cracks are just hairline and I'd have to open them up an dig them out to get anything into them. Thanks for the response and enyoy your boat.