How far forward in my Delerious?

[guest]

I'm new to the realm of C-Boating, but looking for new challenges and fun, I picked up a Delirious to convert.
I went to the local lake with my wife to see where to place myself for best trim. I velcroed in a temporary saddle to try and get an idea. What felt pretty good was my backside ending up about 8"s forward of the back of the cockpit. Oops, I should state that I'm a bit over 6' and 175-180 lbs. She couldn't really tell if I was trim, bow heavy, or stern heavy and I couldn't tell very well either...but it seemed to feel pretty good there. I know some others have the same boat, so I was curious what others have found to be a good placement?
I'm kinda bummin' I waited till now to pick one up (a good winter project I thought) as it was waayyy too fun playing around in. I should have started at the beginning of summer instead of the beginning of winter! I can see I'm going to like this a whole lot.
Thanks for the help,
Mike Bolton

[the great gonzo]

Mike, I just went outside to check out the position of the saddle in my Delirious. It is 7 inches from the rear cockpit rim to the edge of the backsupport of my saddle, the boat was like this when I bought it. Some of my paddling buddies tellme that my trim is slightly stern heavy, but it works pretty well for me. I have no problems to do bow stalls on flat water, and I want to adjust the trimslightly, I simply throw one or two waterbottles in the bow, this helps. So I think inches forward of the cockpit rim is a good starting point. I am also in the same height and weight range as you.

Happy C-boating!

martin

[Aric]

Mike
the seat I have in my delirious is about 8" forward of the cockpit rear, and I am just a little shorter and lighter than you. what a great boat you should be cartwheeling it in no time. good luck

Aric

[Guest]

I checked my deli and the back of my seat is 6" from back of the cockpit.

The difference here may be that I am 240lbs, 6'8", so I have to be pretty careful about my trim -- I can sink the bow just by leaning forward...

I have always found the centre of density to be a useful measure, and the one that seems to work for me (and I suspect other people too) is the point directly below your belly button. This often coincides with the front of your saddle, though not always.

The point directly below my belly button is 17" from the back of the cockpit.

If you want neutral trim, you'd expect that 15" is the spot, because the deli is almost symmetrical, and this is also the point where the boat will balance if you suspend it at that point ... but buouyancy doesn't quite match up with boat mass ...

If you want to learn cartwheels, then maybe try 19".

You'll soon see though, and it's easy to adjust. The ideal outfitting would allow you to trim forward for play, and trim with the stern a little deeper for river running ...

Trim make a big difference!

/edwin

[Guest]

Thanks for the help guys! I think this is going to be a really sweet boat. It sure feels plenty stable, and really playful. I'm amazed at what I can do already, just with temporary saddle...can hardly wait to get it properly outfitted and get paddling...then to hook up with some C-1ers to speed up the learning curve! Somebody needs to make a C-1 instruction video...
Mikey B

[ohc1]

About these measurements (~6"-8")...I assume you guys are talking about the distance from the stern cockpit rim to where your back contacts the seat/backband/etc., right? -Kevin

[the great gonzo]

yes, at least as far as my measurement (7 inches) is concerned it is measured form the inner edge of the cockpit rim in the stern to where my back contacts the backrest on my seat.

martin

[the great gonzo]

yes, at least as far as my measurement (7 inches) is concerned it is measured form the inner edge of the cockpit rim in the stern to where my back contacts the backrest on my seat.

martin

[Mikey B]

Yep Kevin, that's how I measured. Which leads me to ask...what about removing the black coaming...it would give about 1 1/2" more width...it looks like the rim would still be stiff enough.

[the great gonzo]

I thought about removing the coaming as well, but then I decided to keep it for stiffness (not sur how much of a difference it really makes) and decided instead to just take a saw and a rasp and remove some material from the coamin where it was interfering with my thighs. This works well for me so far.

martin