rope rowers seat

cully · 12-27-2003, 09:24 AM

My boat when purchased had been converted from the rowers seat being rope to it now having the plastic backed seat. I really find it bothersome and dangerous (the seat just spells trip and fall to me) to move to and from the back of the boat. Any help on rope material, size, volume and restringing would help me greatly. I still have dowels from when the boat had been roped seated.

willierower · 12-27-2003, 09:49 AM

Forget the rope and go with webbing. Its is much better. If you would like to see how the webbing is set up up, Get ahold of me and you can check it out on my boat.

fatfish · 12-27-2003, 10:06 AM

Webbing is what is on the Willie. Works great. I've seen various styles of webbing available at REI. I think you would be happy converting the plastic seat to webbing.

pearl · 12-27-2003, 10:40 AM

I to bought a Clackacraft that had a "Fish On" seat mounted in place of where the rope seat once went and want to change it back.

On the Clack drift boats there are 1/4" holes on both sides of the seat where the rope once went through. When you guys are talking about webbing I'm assuming your talking about webbing thats an inch wide or so? If so that wouldn't work on my set up. Am I missing somethings or am I destined to replace it with the original type rope?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Pearl

ampersat · 12-27-2003, 02:32 PM

I've heard from a couple of folks about the webbing seats pinching them from time to time. Just something to think about.

Since my seats are drilled for rope I'm replacing it with rope. I think I went 3/8" on my rope for the replacement but really should have gone with the original 1/4" (I have a tendency to overbuild). I ended up having to drill out the holes for the rope which left some sharp edges. I'm still debating on smoothing those edges because I still haven't done the final roping on it. The type of rope to use would be polypropylene. It weathers well and won't rot like other types of rope.

Pearl: if you're going to try replacing your seat with webbing, you're going to need to come up with some sort of a dowel situation on either side of the seat. The webbing won't go through the holes well and you'll be very frustrated long before you're done with the job.

Metal Manipulator · 12-27-2003, 03:04 PM

Some freinds of mine like the short back tractor seats in their boats. My self I would like a little back suport along with adjustability. up down forward and back. at least forward and back. Their tractor seats seem to be holding up well and they have drain holes in them.

stevo · 12-27-2003, 03:43 PM

Cully, whatever rope you use make sure it is zero-stretch, or pre stretched. I used sisal (sp?) in my drifter when I built the seats, with tunbuckles to maintain tension. This setup was a pain in the butt. I am switching to plywood with 1" closed-cell foam glued on w/ contact cement.
Good luck.