Saddle position in Outrage X ?

[Marjorie]

Anybody know what the "recommended" position for saddle placement is for an Outrage X ?

I am finally in a smaller boat (Outrage) and doing well.

My OLD boat: Outrage X was "outfitted backwards" by mistake
by a very well known WW School.

My husband finally removed the saddle & will outfit it for himself.

Because the Outrage X is asymmetrical: just wondering if anyone knows
where saddle placement should be?


I searched the archived Mad River catalogues - not there.

THANKS,
Marjorie
Hopefully - we will only need 1 trip to the pond.

[Pea Pod]

Maybe you could try the following:

- take all old outfitting out of the boat
- put the boat in the pond and tape a small line-level to a level part of the gunnel
- hop in the boat with your saddle and move fore or aft, until the line-level indicates level
- mark the saddle position with a grease pencil

[ezwater]

It's not "that" asymmetrical. I've paddled one, and I own the very much more asymmetrical Synergy.

I found Mad River's advice on seat placement to be near useless. I recommend you put a loose kneeling saddle in your boat and shift it fore and aft until the boat behaves right. I'm a proponent of "cab forward" seat placement, which improves control and cuts way down on wasted J strokes.

P.S.--- Pea Pod, level trim is not the goal in a whitewater boat. But as I said, I prefer to keep the bow a bit down, rather than waving in the air.

[craig]

One can put loose saddle in boat get in the pond scoop a few bailers full of water into the boat (I know it's counterintuitive ) move yourself on your saddle just enough so the puddle in the canoe is centered around your saddle. This worked great for me. One problem with bow heavy set ups is when water is shipped it amplifies the low bow leading to more water coming in especially in long rapids

[Karl M. Nelson]

Well, if you posted this a month or so ago, I could have gone and measured--but my OutrageX is now in a landfill.

1. Place boat upside down on sawhorse so it is balanced.
2. Mark where gunnels meet sawhorse--should end up with four marks--2 on each gunnel.
3. Turn the boat over so the gunnels are now up
4. Measure the point half way between each of the two marks. This is the balance point.
5. Lay a yardstick across the gunnels at the balance point.
6. Measure the distance between the balance point on each gunnel and drop a plumb line to the hull from the point half-way between the balance points.
7. Mark this spot with a big X.
8. Find the midpoint of the hull at several places both fore and aft of the big X. Mark off 1" increments on this line.
9. There is a point mid-way between your belly-button and your spine--kind of where your hipbone sticks out. Where does that line up on your saddle when sitting on the saddle? How far is that from the front of your saddle? The objective is to have that point 3 (bow heavy) or 4 or 5 (bow light) inches aft of the big X.
10. Let's say the belly-button point is 8" from the front of your saddle and you want the belly button point 4 inches aft of the big X. Then you put the front of the saddle 4 inches in front of the big X.

[rowdus90]

I have to agree with ezwater, it's not a crazy asymetrical design like some other boats out there.

I bought an OutrageX a few years ago, it's my only white water boat. I was paddling more often than I am now but always noticed that it's way bow light. I want to say that my hips are a solid 12" from the center of the boat, maybe even more. I dont know who outfitted it, but unless they were using it for a wicked tripper (lots of room between the bags and the bow thwart) they placed the saddle way to far back. the outfitting however is tight, well layed out, rolls pretty easy & It takes something big to tear me out of the boat.

Moving everything forward a good foot has been on my things to do. I plan to follow the directions for installing a Mike-Yee double strap system. It currently has thigh & knee straps (esquif), I plan to keep it that way as it's my preferred restraint system.

http://www.mikeyeeoutfitting.com/instal ... ystem.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The position of the saddle in his system - the lip of the back of the seat should be 7" off center towards the stern. This accounts for what Karl mentions in his later points made. I may bump that number up to 9" cause i'm fat and have a large butt...someday I'll get in shape .

If you want, tonight i'll be finishing up some minor patch work on it, before i rip and tear I can let you know where NOT to put the saddle.

For the record, it runs dry, but the boat should spin much better than it does. I find myself sometimes really having to muscle the boat to get it to spin in current, feels like the stern is just plain stuck. I also find that if I do not absolutely hammer an eddy my stern gets caught up on the line and I get drug down stream, a problem I haven't had with other boats. This tells me there's just too much stern in the water & really limits the size of eddys I can snap into.

[ezwater]

The one I paddled was not bow light, but that was partly because with my height and weight, trim was balanced forward. I prefer cab forward trim anyway, rather than swiveling on the stern.

Rowdus, if the stern felt "stuck", that's what some call skegging the stern. Get the boat trimmed on its midsection, and it should spin OK.