Here it is.  Sanderson has shared this on other web sites but this is the debut of our new folding seat on the Tatman Wooden Boat site. 

The bottom saddle is made in classic white water boat style with rope woven through the sides, tightened between the two side supports on the inside of the seat so it has a small enough footprint to easily fit on the bench seats in the boat. It has a 1/2 inch plywood bottom that can easily accept any of the bolt on swivel attachments.

This seat was made custom for clients from Alberta Canada that are planning on a BIG TRIP in the summer of 2010. More about that and the boat they will be building soon.

[HTML1]

Tonight Sanderson is working on building our first prototype wooden seat with a folding back. At the beginning of this project I was doubtful that a sturdy and attractive chair for white water could look traditional and be strong enough to take the everyday abuse. One of our custom boat clients did some research for me that was a great inspiration (Thank you Hans and Mihkel) and now I’m very excited about what we have come up with.

Here are the first drawings. Sandy and I had a few particular ideas to start with.

1. Make it as traditional as possible. So we started with a rope rower’s seat.
2. Make the back folding. A framed boat requires that you step over the thwart seats and folding chair        backs  makes the job much easier.
3. Strong, strong , strong and stronger.
4. Light weight, which is often the opposite of #3.
5. Be able to sit on the chair with the back folded down. We don’t recommend this is the best way to use the seat but it has to be able to withstand the weight of a person sitting on it when closed.

So, today the cut files were put on our CNC and Sanderson is busy gluing together the first prototype. We’ve already found a few changes to improve the this original design but overall I’m very pleased with the first attempt.

Photos of the real thing soon.