Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 17:07:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Kirk Olsen <kork@imagelan.com>
To: baidarka@imagelan.com
Subject: Re: Seat backs
In-Reply-To: <9601152051.AA03964@hpbs1686.boi.hp.com>
Message-Id: <Pine.SV4.3.91.960115164707.7761M-100000@baidarka>
On Mon, 15 Jan 1996, Bill Blohm wrote:
> > One baidarka that I've used had an interesting seat back. The backrest
> > was a wooden elipse, shaped nicely to fit the small of the back. The
> > back rest was mounted onto a dowel. The dowel fit into notches cut into
> > two side rails inside the cockpit. There were about 5 notches cut at
> > about 4 cm spacings. I liked this arrangement because you could adjust
> > the trim of the baidarka by moving the "seat" backwards or forwards.
> > This particular baidarka did not have foot rests and the seat bottom was
> > the floorboards.
>
> Interesting, indeed. But how did you keep the dowel in place while entering
> or exiting, or when the boat was upside down? Rubber bands?
The slots were cut at a 45 degree angle, with the opening forward, and
above the final position. Brutal ascii art follows:
|----/ /----/ /----/ /----/ /----|
| / / / / / / / / |
| / / / / / / / / |
| ----- ----- ----- ----- |
|--------------------------------------------|
In real life the slots looked to have been cut with a router, the dowel
fit fairly snuggly, and there was additional material to the outside of
each slot so that the back brace could not slide sideways.
The owner of that boat doesn't have a roll so keeping the back brace in
place when upside down wasn't a concern. With the way the slots were
angled the back brace probably would have stayed in place during a roll,
assuming the occupant successfully rolled. Adding a short tether to
the back brace would probably be worthwhile.
The back brace was slipped in place before getting in and then pivoted
into position after climbing in. The back "pad" did have a tendency to
pivot downward without a paddler leaning against it.
This particular baidarka also had an extra long cockpit, about as long
as a keyhole cockpit.
kirk