JEM Watercraft

Hey Matt,

I'm going to buy a couple seats from you. What length seats do I need for the Merrimac? I was thinking with two seats I can get away with 34". Is that right? I want the cane seats, with hardware, stained & varnished. I don't know *exactly* where I'm going to put them yet (yes inside the canoe, before Kayak Jack gets smart ).

Also, is the hardware for hanging from a slotted gunwale, or for drilling through the hull? I'm doing the slotted gunwale so I'm curious.
Is that going to be strong enough to hold a person? It seems a bit flimsy to hang a seat from a 1/2" piece of wood epoxied in to the boat.

34" should be plenty big.

The hardware kit is for hanging from the gunwales. You'd be surprized how stiff and strong the hull becomes once glassed and the gunwales are installed.

If you're still concerned, you could glue some 1x2 strips vertically against the sides walls to act as stiffening ribs in the seat areas.

You culd also glue some cleats to the side panels and mount the seats on top of those. Takes a little effort to get glued in the right spots. Then it's not suspended from the gunwales but you're pretty much locked in where the seats are.

When I put the Cain seat in the Pirogue I used 4 inch carriage bolts and ran them thru some wood doweling to hold the seat. The seat can be removed anytime I want it removed.



On the canoe when I installed the Cain seat I cut it to size to fit on top of the strip under it and then epoxyed the seat to it and along with some epoxy on the ends of the seat against the sides of the canoe.
To make it really secure I epoxyed in a piece of wood doweling above it and below the upper inside rail. No bolts to hold it just a good fit and some epoxy. It cannot be removed without a lot of work.



Chuck.