C-Forum

Need some advice here gents. I recently purchased a 1998 vintage XL14 without any seats/saddles. I will only use this boat when paddling tandem so I will be putting two saddles in it.

I'm ready to mount the saddles but am not really sure where in the boat they should go. Can someone give me some guidance on where to put these in the boat? Is there a general rule of thumb that says they should be equally spaced X" from the centerline or X" from each end of the boat? Any particular distance they need to be from each other?

If it matters I'm about 215lbs and my mostly likely partners for the bow will be somewhere between 50 and 100lbs less than me.

Help...

so I have spent the last 30 mins digging thru old files and I dont have a record of how to outfit this boat Give me a little while and I will figure it out and post it up for you

While you are digging through your old records could you also post the measurements for outfitting the Mohawk Shaman if you run across them.
Thanks

I have an XL14 but outfitted for 2 light boaters (150 range) up at camp. I'll try to look at the boat over the weekend if Mr. Mohawk can't track it down. It was a ball park mount but worked. Good luck - fun boat as a tandem.

Trex we dont have the measuments for the shaman any more we dont sell it so we dont have those records. I have one around so I can go get those measuments for you .

OK, so I now have both saddles in hand and am ready to install them in my XL14. However, I'm stilll stuck as to where exactly the saddles should be installed in the boat. Does anybody have one of these that they can measure up and send some dimensions?

How about this, can somebody post the location of the saddles their tandem WW boat so I have some basis to go from? I think if I know the overall lengh of the boat, and locations of the seats in relation to each other and from each end of the boat I can do some math to take into account OAL differences and get close.

I'm hoping to have this boat in the water by next weekend so any guidance here is appreciated. Thanks,

Jeff

so this is the best that I can do front saddle is 36.5 from the front deck plate and the front of the rear saddle is 74 inches from the front deck plate. I would use this as a rough placement. And this is using mohawk saddles.

I'd take any advice of "so many inches from this point" with a grain of salt (as Richard said, a rough estimate, or some info for a starting point). Look around the rivers and you'll see quite a range of saddle placements - some relatively far apart, some super-tight - there is no precise right or wrong that works for everyone.

Better to worry about what feels right for you, and how you'll use the boat, than to put too much stock in other people's measurements (not that I haven't asked similar questions - getting an idea of the range is useful). Plus, there's often confusion because people have measured from slightly different points, or have different deck plates, saddles, or whatever.

I used moveable saddles in my Vertige X, partly because I wanted the option of a true solo placement, but also for the adjustability in tandem - with adjustable saddles my wife & I can switch ends and still trim the boat, and kids grow, etc.

If you like, and can measure my saddle placement in the Vertige X next week. But I highly recommend adjustable saddles - why fix the positions forever if you don't have to? I've used the anchors from North Water for adjustable saddles and they work well.

Pat.