Equipping a traditional rowing boat with a sliding seat�without outriggers or longer oars�is an idea that has been around for a while. I knew there would be clearance for the oar handles over my thighs, because I could sit on a throw cushion and still have room. I rowed 15 or so miles in 4 hours, much farther than I anticipated. I liked it, and decided to make one for the dory.
Note the foot brace secured to the floorboards under the aft thwart. I dug around my shop and came up with a couple of tracks and a seat. The tracks each had a stop in one end, and I split some dowels for the other. Another option for stops is to secure blocks of wood across the ends of the tracks. Some careful layout is required to make sure that the tracks are parallel. When everything was square, I drilled holes for the bolts to hold the tracks.
On the bottom of the sliding seat there are two aluminum toggles to hold the rig in place on the thwart. The support for the overhanging aft end of the rig folds flat for storage and transport. With a GPS logging my speed, I found that switching from the fixed thwart to the sliding seat consistently added half of a knot.
Rowing 24 strokes per minute, I could have kept going for hours. Pushing off with the balls of my feet helps power the drive; to get the full advantage of the sliding seat you should have a stretcher at the appropriate height.
With the sliding seat I can reach farther aft at the catch, so the oar blades reach farther forward , and with the longer stroke I can get the blades buried and have more time to apply more power through the middle of the stroke where it does the most good. One of the biggest issues with dory is its windage. The additional power of legs makes a significant difference on those days where I only gain half a boat length on a stroke.
I took the dory out on an unpleasant rowing day; when I stopped rowing, a nasty chop with wind and tide pushed me downwind at 1. With the rig in place I was able to make 2. I did switch to my shorter oars, shortened the stroke, and sped up the stoke rate, and if it had been rough enough to roll the seat off the tracks, or I had a problem getting the blades out of the water, I could have easily removed the seat and rowed from the thwart.
Not having the outriggers and long oars typical of drop-in sliding-seat rigs keeps the versatility of a fixed-seat boat. Perhaps the most interesting possibility is the ability to use this compact slide with a sail-and-oar boat.
You could make higher rowlock socket pads if needed. To check how far aft of your fixed thwart the tracks can go, take some scrap and make a temporary seat. Seats and tracks can be bought from Latanzo or Pocock. If you are near a rowing club, you may be able to find an old wooden seat, as most racing shells have converted to carbon-fiber seats.
Ben Fuller , curator of the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, has been messing about in small boats for a very long time. He is owned by a dozen or more boats ranging from an International Canoe to a faering.
All during my childhood, my father repaired racing shells and our garage was full of seats, wheels, and tracks. To make my sliding seat I had to improvise with readily available materials. I had kept a lot of worn-out inline-skate wheels, and the bearings would serve as wheels. The the large notch and the holes take the pressure off your tailbone and sit bones.
The hole in the aluminum angle is threaded and the nut opposite the bearing locks the bolt in place. The same aluminum angle stock serves as the tracks.
I screwed a block to the underside of the seat and two blocks to the plywood base as stops to keep the seat from running off the tracks. The bearings and the bolts can drag on the aluminum tracks, but an application of grease makes for smooth rolling see Update below. My thanks to Ben for a great idea.
The support on the aft end of the base is a shouldered tenon that fits into a mortice that extends through the plywood into the hardwood stop block. The aft thwart is my preferred rowing position.
I have a full foot board solidly attached to the floorboards and no obstructions for the sliding-seat stroke. With a few modifications to get the centerboard pendants out from under the base, the sliding seat fits over the the center thwart.
The footbrace is slung from straps around the aft thwart. My reach into the stern for the catch is slightly limited by the contact of my shins against the aft thwart. While taking a long row with the sliding seat in my Whitehall, I discovered that the lubrication on the bearings, bolt heads, and tracks would get pushed away and the bolt heads would then create some drag on the sides of the tracks.
This was especially noticeable when I turned to look over my shoulder. I added strips of UHMW plastic in between the bearings.
The surface of the plastic is just proud of the bolt heads and still fits in the tracks; it keeps the seat aligned and provides a low-friction contact against the aluminum. A dense hardwood, well greased, might be an adequate substitute. Strips of dense, slippery plastic now keep the bolt heads from grating against the sides of the aluminum tracks.
You can share your tricks of the trade with other Small Boats Monthly readers by sending us an email. We welcome your comments about this article. Nice ideas. Very similar to the Finnish sliding seats on the Savo racing boats�sliding seat plus on-gunwale oars. The oars are on a pin, no feathering. Many rowers use seatpads, especially those who spend hours or days or weeks rowing.
We also have an Alden ocean shell double, so all I do is remove the Oarmaster, unscrew the riggers and drop the unit onto a mat on the floor of the peapod. I use the aftermost oarlocks and it works just dandy and keeps my weight much lower than if I were seated on the thwart. We have no floorboards for it, just a rubber mat to keep things dry and avoid sliding around when pulling on the oars. A nice few miles up the river, no wind, and when out of the tide hitting 3.
The old-style double slide seat I have is hard to keep lubricated to keep quiet. I think the Diy Sliding Canoe Seat Upgrade modern ones are better. And I definitely use a pad on the seat. Ben, Your sliding seat looks like the answer to my prayers.
Would prefer to fit a sliding seat to the top of the existing seat as per your photos. In addition to the information contained in your article are you able to provide any updates or additional guidance?
Would be most grateful. Single-digit temperatures, 10 knots of breeze, and a Camden Harbor that is starting to ice has kind of put the kibosh on it. This is the first sliding seat I would like to build. Until now I was afraid it would clutter up the boat for sailing. And I like the idea of using skate wheel bearings. I wanted to keep the finished seat as low as I could to keep from screwing up the ergonomics of the relative positions of butt, feet, and oars, so I appreciated that the bearings-as-wheels solution would do that.
Update: I finally got out on the water to try out the new rig. With the GPS, I rowed back and forth in basically calm conditions first without the rig and then with it. That is, I can row the empty boat about 3. The other possibility with the rig is to keep the same speed as without it, but simply to expend less effort.
On a long trip, where you may be rowing all day, day after day, this might make sense. Your email address will not be published. This year I revived the idea a sheltered helm. I put three large forward-facing windows in the front of the cabin, reinstalled the rudder and kill-switch lines, and added a�.
The project began in March when he and his wife Sara sailed around the Eddystone Lighthouse, 13�. I knew there would be clearance for the�. I recently upgraded to a new smart phone and decided that a reliable dry bag was in order. The staff at my local kayak shop pointed me to the GoBag,�. Like most museums, it preserves artifacts of the past, but the Independence�. One of the first things that my father-in-law taught me was how to make the end of a line shipshape by applying a whipping.
The method that he taught me�. Because files are made of very hardened high-carbon�. Search for:. Ben Fuller On the bottom of the sliding seat there are two aluminum toggles to hold the rig in place on the thwart. Christopher Cunningham The support on the aft end of the base is a shouldered tenon that fits into a mortice that extends through the plywood into the hardwood stop block. Christopher Cunningham The aft thwart is my preferred rowing position. Christopher Cunningham With a few modifications to get the centerboard pendants out from under the base, the sliding seat fits over the the center thwart.
UPDATE While taking a long row with the sliding seat in my Whitehall, I discovered that the lubrication on the bearings, bolt heads, and tracks would get pushed away and the bolt heads would then create some drag on the sides of the tracks. Share this article. Join The Conversation We welcome your comments about this article.
Comments 11 Nice ideas. Glad that people are finding the article useful. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
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