Thwart / Yoke / Brace placement

[skiabq]

I am putting the finishing touches on a 12' x 29" solo canoe , not of Matt's design, sorry Matt I started this project before you had the Eno finished . I am trying to figure out the proper placement of the center thwart. The way I would like to have this canoe setup is with just one thwart, maybe even have it be a yoke, and have it be as close to the center of the canoe as possible. Obviously I will have a center seat eventually, I need to get it in the water to find out exactly where I want the seat, so it will come later. The center brace needs to be in the canoe before I can get it in the water, kind of a chicken and egg thing. Is there some sort of a calculation to find out where to put this brace? I don't want it so close to me that it would be hitting me in the back when I am sitting in the seat. I have seen several pictures of solo canoes and the single thwart is slightly behind the center of the boat, but I would like to know by how much. Any ideas from you guys more experienced than me?

Thanks

[jem]

For portaging, you'd want it on the center of balance or perhaps just a bit aft.

But that will interfer with getting good balance while paddling.

You could use a removable yoke like: http://www.jemwatercraft.com/proddetail ... versalYoke

[Kayak Jack]

Corey,

I have exactly the same difficulty with a canoe I built from plans. I hadn't met Matt yet and got these plans from Selway-Fisher. (I've learned to not get from them any more and now do business with Matt.)

Here's the way I'm solving the problem on my canoe. I have ventilated gunnels. My in-wale is a strip of 1/8" plywood about 3" wide. I have spacers between the hull and the in-wale. These particular spacers are triangles, 45-45-90 right triangles about 1/2" thick. I drilled a large hole in the center of each triangle to lighten them. Spacers are alternated up & down along the top and bottom edges of that 3" in-wale.

For a thwart, I'll use a dowel about 3/4" diameter, with a hole drilled near each end about 1/2" in from each end. Through these holes, I'll put 2' of nylon parachute cord; any light weight, hard braided line would serve.

While paddling, I'll tie the thwart across the boat UNDER the gunnels, just aft of the seat. (It may even serve as a back rest.) The boat is narrower aft of center, so the thwart wouldn't fit in between the ventilated gunnels at that point.

For portaging, I'll tie it to the TOP edge of the ventilated gunnels at the balance point, which will be near the widest part of the boat at the center. I'll use a tump line to that thwart, and let the thwart rest NOT on my shoulders, but on my back a few inches below my shoulders. Foam pipe insullation will pad the thwart.

[Oldsparkey]

OK ... I will be odd man out in this conversation........

One of the pirogues I made I used a woven cain seat in it, the leading edge of the bracket for the seat was at the center line of the boat.
Since I don't portage a boat I never gave it any thought but did wake up on one trip in the Okefenokee at Floyds Island.

John Depa was on that run and he offered to carry my heavy, really heavy, pirogue (32 pounds) for me.
He hoisted it up and set the seat on his shoulders and started walked off, then he released his hands from the sides of it and was not even holding onto the boat, hiking up the trail. He even turned around and hollered at us to look how well it is balanced.
The balance was perfect because of where I placed the seat.
See ....... Accidents do happen when you don't know what you are doing when building a boat.

Chuck.
Portage ... To me is a French Cuss Word. Ya know ... Thinking about that .. I bet ole John is still laughing at this cracker.... I hiked with the camping bags, food and water bag and they had to weight 3 times what that boat weighed. No wonder he was smiling such a big smile.
Nut's..... he was portaging and I was hiking There is a difference

[skiabq]

I like Kayak Jack's idea of a movable or removable thwart.

Chuck gave me a valuable piece of information too. If the front of the seat is the balance point, I can just measure the size of my seat and put the thwart about 6 inches behind that. That should leave me enough room so it wouldn't be hitting me in the back.

Thanks for the help.