Valley seat lowering

[Doug_Lloyd]

I have a hardly used newer generation Valley Nordkapp (maybe three times calm water) that I can’t use due to spinal issues and I should probably sell it. I only keep it as a reminder of a miss-spent youth on the West Coast, though in an older Nordkapp. I’d like to remount the seat as low as it will go for stability for hopefully a more tempting sale. Carving a foam one was my original plan but I’ll do that for my Avocet which I might try a day paddle in this summer. So, I was thinking of getting some longer screws where they go through the deck, sandwiching the seat side supports between the deck and the aluminum braces below. I can fill the gaps with ABS plastic thereby adding yet another sandwiched part. I’ve included a picture of the new gap. I’ve removed the minicell foam from under the seat, maximally lowering the pan, but I should leave a slight gap and was wondering if I spray void foam it would hopefully fill the whole area as a cushion, but I don’t know if there’s a foam that’s duty rated for ocean environs and doesn’t compress permanently during weight transfer, flexing, etc. I could just custom fit minicell foam too. Any ideas anyone? The original modern Valley seat of my model were known to break at the seat mounts as they weren’t, um, very well hung. Too much flex. There is a fix for that on YouTube.

 

[CPS]

I would go for a sheet of neoprene, myself.

 

[mick_allen]

Another could be little glued [aquaseal, goop, epoxy, etc] 1-2" squares of minicell that would be easily shaped, readily place-able and readily allow drainage past the seat.

 

[Doug_Lloyd]

I found this pic on the Kayak Academy site. The foam gives good pan support though I’d be minimal for my application. I’ll add some “L” shaped aluminum angle to reinforce the side mounts too. I’ll see how it “pans” out. Thanks folks.

 

[BigandSmall]

When you do your Avocet have a look at Redfish kayak's pre-carved foam seat blanks. For an additional fee he will shape the bottom of the blank to match your hull too. Doesn't leave any work on your end other than squeezing it in the coaming but they are very comfortable and very very low for added stability.

 

[eriktheviking]

I know some people want the hard seat so they have butt movement but my foam seat in my strip boat is the most comfortable kayak seat I have used so far. Making one out of 3" minicell foam is not hard (though it might not be as pretty as the Redfish ones) The build site <oneoceankayaks.com> had pretty good instructions online and is what I used. Their web site is offline today (seemed pretty dormant for awhile) but is on the wayback machine still: https://web.archive.org/web/20210223223302/http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Wshophtm/kayakseat18a.htm